WHAT  WOMEN 
CAN  EARNfc22 


LIBRARY 

,  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


WHAT  WOMEN 

CAN  EARN 

OCCUPATIONS  OF  WOMEN  AND  THEIR 
COM  PENS  A  TION 


GRACE  H.  DODGE 
THOMAS  HUNTER 
MRS.  MARY  J.  LINCOLN 
S.  S.  PACKARD 
MRS.  A.  M.  PALMER 


BY 

MAJOR  J.  B.  POND 

MRS.  MARGARET  E.  SANGSTER 

MRS.  CANDACE  WHEELER 

MARY  E.  WILKINS 

HELEN  M.  WINSLOW 


AND  OTHERS 


Essays  on  All  the  Leading  Trades  and  Professions  in  America  in 

Which  "Women  Have  Asserted  Their  Ability  with  Data 

as  to  the  Compensation  Afforded  in  Each  One. 


» 


NEW  YORK 
FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 
Bv  THE  TRIBUNE  ASSOCIAIION 

COPYRIGHT,  1899, 
BY  FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 


PREFACE. 


A  FEW  of  the  writers  of  the  signed  essays  in  this  volume 
are  men,  distinguished  in  special  vocations  and  known 
throughout  the  United  States.  The  others  are  women, 
nearly  all  of  them  prominent,  and  all,  if  in  business,  suc- 
cessful, who  say  nothing  out  of  the  scope  of  their  own 
observation,  who  infuse  their  own  delightful  personality 
into  their  discussions,  and  who  seem  sincerely  desirous  of 
aiding  such  of  their  sisters  as  aspire  to  enter  practical 
occupations. 

The  opportunity  for  self-support  by  women — the  chance 
to  make  a  living — is  the  point  chiefly  dwelt  upon  in  the 
following  pages.  The  nature  of  the  work  in  each  trade, 
the  preparation  required,  the  cost  of  training  and  appren- 
ticeship, the  need  of  economy  of  strength  as  well  as  of 
money,  the  places  where  instruction  may  be  obtained,  the 
best  means  of  attaining  success,  and,  finally,  the  probable 
remuneration,  are  explained  clearly  and  sympathetically. 

This  publication  is  the  first  attempt,  in  a  practical  and 
comprehensive  way,  to  bring  before  women  who  must  face 
the  necessity  of  struggle  for  a  livelihood,  and  before  the 
public  at  large,  the  importance  and  character  of  woman's 
work  in  the  various  trades  and  professions  in  which  she 
has  already  asserted  her  ability.  It  is  intended  as  a  use- 
ful guide,  both  to  those  who  are  launched  and  to  those 
who  stand  at  the  threshold  of  a  career,  perhaps  even  yet 
hesitating  in  which  direction  to  proceed.  The  work  will 
show  what  is  within  the  scope  of  woman's  powers  in  the 
world  of  business,  her  chances  of  success,  and  the  com- 


212051 


iv  PREFACE. 

pensation  which  she  may  expect.  So  concisely  are  all  the 
topics  treated  that  any  woman  who  reads  the  series  will 
be  able,  guided  by  her  own  judgment  as  to  ability,  as  well 
as  by  inclination,  to  choose  the  work  upon  which  she  can 
enter  with  th  Direst  prospect  of  success. 

Nothing  in  ti  present  age  is  more  distinctive  than  the 
tendency  of  woman  to  invade  every  hopeful  field  of  wage- 
earning  and  to  reach  a  place  in  every  intellectual  arena. 
Nearly  every  trade  and  profession  is  open  to  her.  There 
are,  indeed,  a  few  places  which  she  cannot  fill,  but  gov- 
ernmental reports  show  quite  conclusively  that  hundreds 
of  vocations  are  hers  if  she  choose  to  follow  them,  and 
for  many  of  them  she  is  better  adapted  than  man. 
Recognising  an  actual  necessity  of  the  situation,  woman 
is  now  anxious  for  a  thoroughly  satisfactory  equipment. 
She  is  no  longer  content  to  do  slipshod  work  and  receive 
the  inferior  pay  which  goes  with  such  labour.  Secure  in 
the  assurance  that  she  does  not  sacrifice  womanly  charms 
or  womanly  privileges  in  earning  her  daily  bread,  she 
now  shows  herself  as  anxious  to  profit  by  the  facilities  of 
technical  and  other  special  schools  as  young  men  are. 
And  nothing  is  more  marked,  at  this  time,  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  than  the  fact  that  women  with  proper  train- 
ing are  making  themselves  formidable  competitors  with 
men  in  a  great  variety  of  practical  occupations,  in  which 
twenty-five  years  ago  they  were  scarcely  known,  and  in 
some  of  them  are  actually  displacing  men. 

The  subject  of  "  Occupations  of  Women  "  has  been 
treated  very  ably  and  extensively  in  the  Woman's  Page  of 
The  New  York  Tribune  during  the  past  year ;  and  the 
publishers  of  this  volume  desire  to  express  their  thanks  to 
the  Editor  of  The  Tribune  for  permission  to  use  some  of 
i!ie  articles  included  here  which  have  appeared  in  that 
department  of  the  paper. 


INDEX  TO  CONTENT*1      '' 

PAGE 

ADVERTISEMENT  WRITING.    See  "  Trade  and  Busi- 
ness Occupations." 

"A  QUAINT  OCCUPATION." 238 

ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION. 

"  A  Beaux  Arts  for  Women,"  the  Masqueray  atelier.       .     107 

"  Compensation  of  Architects."        .....      98 

"Fascinating  as  an  Art,"  an  interview  on  wood-carving.     103 

"  Making  Homes  Beautiful,"  by  Miss  MARY  E.  TILLING- 

HAST,  superintendent  of  the  decoration  of  the  Hotel 

Savoy,  and  assistant  in  the  decoration  of  the  Van- 

derbilt  mansion. 98 

"She  Plans  New  Buildings,"  by  Miss  ALICE  J.  HANDS, 
who  writes  from  experience  gained  in  the  construc- 
tion of  model  tenements  and  suburban  cottages.      .      94 
AUTHORSHIP. 

"  Fiction  a  Hopeful  Field,"  by  MRS.   MARGARET  E. 

SANGSTER,  Editor  of  "  Harper's  Bazaar."        .        .21 
"Good  Wits,  Pen  and  Paper,"  by  Miss  MARY  E.  WIL- 
KINS,  famous  as  a  story  teller  and  delineator  of 
quaint  characters,  who   gained    her  reputation  by 
perseverance  in  the  face  of  many  discouragements.       28 
"  Journalism  Has  Charms,"  by  MRS.  CYNTHIA  WEST- 
OVER  ALDEN. 30 

"  Profits  of  Authorship." 38 

"  Secrets  of  Pen-Craft,"  by  MRS.  MARGARET  McCuL- 
LOUGH  WILLIAMS,  writer  of  Southern  stories  and 
journalist,  who  describes  the  technical  part  of  writ- 
ing for  the  magazines.      ......      24 

"To  the  Would-Be  Authors,"  by  Miss  HELEN  M. 
WINSLOW,  writer  of  serial  stories,  a  journalist  of 
extended  experience  and  now  Editor  of  •'  The  Club 
Woman."  .........  36 


vi  INDEX  TO  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

BOARDING-HOUSES.     See  "  Household  Science. " 
BOOKBINDING.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 
CERAMICS.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 
CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS. 

"  Be  Your  Own  Typewriter,"  a  description  of  the  Blick- 

ensderfer  machine.     . 152 

"  Clerks  in  Public  Offices." 169 

"  Clerks  Who  Have  Risen." 174 

"  Dots,  Dashes  and  Switchboard,"  the  work  of  a  teleg- 
rapher, by  MRS.  M.  E.  RANDOLPH,  who  qualified 
as  telegrapher  in  1862  in  Massachusetts,  became 
manager  of  an  office  in  New  York  City  in  1864,  and 
has  been  connected  with  Western  Union  headquar- 
ters since  1884 159 

"  Girls  in  Clerical  Work,"  by  the  late  PROFESSOR  S.  S. 
PACKARD,  a  famous  instructor,  the  writing  of  whose 
essay  on  this  subject  was  one  of  the  last  acts  of  his 

busy  career 141 

"  Private  Secretaries 1 56 

4 '  Pay  of  Telephone  Girls 169 

"  Soft  Answer  to  Hello,"  a  paper  on  Telephone  Girls,  by 
HERBERT  LAWS  WEBB,  an  expert  in  this  line,  who 
explains  minutely  the  duties  of  a  girl  who  wishes  to 

succeed 162 

"  Typewriting  Is  a  Real  Art,"  by  Miss  MARY  BOUR- 
CHIER  SANFORD,  an  expert  typewriter,  who  has 
lately  added  to  her  reputation  by  writing  two  novels 

on  Canadian  life.         . 145 

"  Wage  Earning  with  the  Pen." 158 

"  Women  in   Post-offices,"  by  the   HON.   CORNELIUS 

VAN  COTT,  Postmaster  of  New  York.    .        .        .171 
COMPANION.     See  "  Household  Science." 
COOKING.     See  "  Household  Science." 
DAIRY  WORK.     See  "  Realm  of  Agriculture." 
DECORATION.     See  "  Architecture." 
DENTISTRY.     See  "  Learned  Professions." 
DESIGNING.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 


INDEX  TO  CONTENTS.  vii 

PAGE 

DRAMATIC  ART. 

"  Dramatic  Training  in  College."     .        .        .        .        -55 
"  Earnings  of  the  Stage,"  by  MRS.  A.  M.  PALMER,  wife 
of  a  theatrical   manager,  and   herself  a  theatrical 
manager,  president  of  the  Professional  Woman's 

League 49 

"  Miss  Ida  Benfey,  the  American  Story  Teller."      .        .       52 

"  Professional  Reading.'' 51 

"  Sixty  Years  on  the  Stage,"  by  MRS.  W.   G.  JONES, 
member  of  all  the  old-time  good  stock  companies  in 
New  York  City,  leading  lady  at  the  Bowery  Theatre 
when  it  was  considered  the  best  in  town,  the  original 
Eliza,  when  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  was  played  for  the 
first  time  in  New  York,  and  later  Topsy.        .        .      39 
"  Thespis  Is  a  Hard  Master,"  by  MRS.  ELEANOR  GEOR- 
GEN,  instructor  of  elocution  and  acting  in  the  Ameri- 
can Academy  of  Dramatic  Arts  for  thirteen  years, 
and  now  connected  with  the  Berkeley  Lyceum.        .      44 
DRESSING  STORE  WINDOWS. 
DRESSMAKERS.     See  "  Industrial    Arts  "  and  "  Society 

Women  in  Business." 
ENGRAVING.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 
EQUESTRIANISM.    See  "  Trade  and   Business  Occupa- 
tions." 

FACTORY  GIRLS.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 
FARMING.     See  "  Realm  of  Agriculture." 
FINANCIERS.     See  "Trade  and  Business   Occupations" 

and  "  Society  Women  in  Business." 
FRUIT  DRYING.     See  "  Realm  of  Agriculture." 
GOLDFISH  FARMING.     See  "  Realm  of  Agriculture." 
"GROWING  FIELDS  OF  WORK."          .         .        .        .       106 
HORTICULTURE.     See  "  Realm  of  Agriculture." 
HOUSE  DECORATION.     See  "  Architecture  and  Decora- 
tion." 
HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE. 

"  Dignity  of  the  Good  Cook,"  by  Miss  EMILY  HUNT- 


viii  INDEX  TO  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

INGTON,  a  teacher  in  the  New  York  Cooking  School, 
a  pioneer  instructor  and  authority.        .         .        .       in 
"Domestic  Science,"  by  MRS.  MARY  J.  LINCOLN,  of 
Boston,  first  principal  of  the  Boston  Cooking  School, 
author  of  the  "  Boston  Cook  Book,"   and  culinary 
editor  of  "The  American  Kitchen  Magazine."        .     125 
"  Housekeeping  a  Science,  by  MRS.  LED  YARD  STEVENS, 
manager  of  the  Bureau  of  Social  Requirements  in 

New  York  City 114 

"  In  a  Manual  Training  School." 139 

"  Keeping  Boarders  an  Art,"  a  delightful  essay,  by 
Miss  MARY  E.  J.  KELLEY,  long  vice-president  of 
the  Social  Reform  Club,  member  of  the  Council  of 
Mediation  and  Conciliation,  and  a  writer  on  eco- 
nomics and  labour  topics 119 

"  Sanitary  Laundry." 137 

"  Wages  of  the  Cook."    .        .        .        .        .        .        .138 

"  What  Amateurs  Can  Do." 133 

"  Work  of  the  Companion."    .        .        .  .        .     135 

INDUSTRIAL  ARTS. 

"Art  Designing  a  Trade,"  by  MRS.  CANDACE  WHEELER, 
a  conspicuous  authority  on  the  decoration  of  papers 
and  fabrics 240 

"  Art  Work  to  Make  Money,"  an  article  on  Engraving, 
by  Miss  Lois  KNIGHT,  a  practical  and  advanced 
engraver,  whose  name  in  1897  was  attached  as  en- 
graver to  70,000  illustrated  catalogues  for  silver 
warehouses 250 

"  Bookbinding  as  a  Craft,"  by  the  late  EVELYN  HUNTER 
NORDHOFF,  the  last  opinion  on  the  subject  which 
she  ever  gave. 269 

''Competent  Proofreaders,"  by  THEODORE  L.  DE 

VINNE,  the  greatest  of  American  printers.  .  .  263 

"  Dressmaking." 259 

"  Factory  Girls." 275 

"  Fairy  Creations  in  Lace,"  by  R.  T 279 


INDEX  TO  CONTENTS.  ix 


"  Industrial  Design,"  by  MRS.  FLORENCE  ELIZABETH 

CORY,  founder  and  head  of  Mrs.  Cory's  Original 

School  of  Industrial  Arts  for  Women.       .        .        .     245 

"  Outlook  for  Ceramists,"  by  MRS.  L.  VANCE  PHILLIPS, 

of  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  an  authority  on  this  art  and  a 

teacher ' 264 

"  Small  Manufactures." 273 

"Taste  in  Trimming  Hats,"  by  Miss  BESSIE  ANNIE 
LOSEY,  teacher  of  millinery  for  a  Young  Women's 

Christian  Association 253 

"The  Making  of  Book  Covers."          .        .        .        .272 

"Wages  of  Milliners." 258 

"  Wages  of  Seamstresses." 263 

JOURNALISM.    See  "  Authorship." 

LACE-MAKING.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 

LAUNDRY.    See  "  Household  Science." 

LAW.    See  "  Learned  Professions." 

LAW  BOOK  AGENTS.    See  "  Trade  and  Business  Occupations." 

LEARNED  PROFESSIONS. 

"  Dentistry  as  a  Profession,"  by  DR.  MARGARITA  A. 
STEWART,  M.  D.,  D.  D.  S.,  a  practitioner  for  twelve 
years,  graduate  of  the  Philadelphia  School  of  Den- 
tistry, post-graduate  of  the  New  York  Dental  School, 
and  holder  of  a  degree  as  practising  physician.  .  196 

"Earnings  in  Dentistry." 202 

"  Girl  Disciples  of  Galen,"  by  DR.  SARAH  J.  WILLIAMS 
VANDERBEEK,  a  country  girl  who  has  worked  her 

way  to  prominence  in  medicine 180 

"  How  Nurses  Are  Trained,"  by  Miss  IRENE  H.  SUT- 
LIFFE,  director  of  the  Training  School  of  the  New 

York  Hospital 203 

"Miss ,  Searcher  for  Patents."    ....       195 

*' Patent  Soliciting,"  by  Miss  EDITH  J.  GRISWOLD, 

solicitor 191 

"  The  Fin  De  Siecle  Portia,"  by  MRS.  FLORENCE  DAN- 
GERFIELD  POTTER,  a  graduate  of  Cornell  Univer- 
sity, formerly  assistant  to  the  District-Attorney  of 


x  INDEX  TO  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

New  York  City,  later  assistant  to  the  Superinten- 
dent of  Buildings,  and  now  a  practitioner  of  cor- 
poration law.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .184 

"Women  as  Missionaries." 202 

"  Women  as  Opticians." 208 

"  Women   Pastors,"  by  the  REV.  ALICE  K.  WRIGHT, 

who  is  one  of  them,  and  the  wife  also  of  a  minister.       176 
LECTURE  FIELD. 

"  Illustrated  Lecturing." .70 

"  Lyceum  Stars,"  by  MAJOR  J.  B.  POND,  the  veteran 
manager  under  whose  direction  dates  have  been 
made  for  women  for  the  last  thirty  years.  .  .  66 

"  Stars  of   Lesser  Degree." .76 

"  What   Lecturers   Earn,"  by  ALONZO  FOSTER,  mana- 
ger of  one  of  the  prominent  lyceum  bureaus.   .        .       74 
LIBRARIANS. 

"  An  Evironment  of  Books,"  by  Miss  ADELAIDE  R. 
HAASE,  attache  of  the  Astor  Library,  who  made 
the  first  attempt  to  collect  for  the  United  States 
Government  a  file  of  its  own  publications.  .  .211 
"  In  Circulating  Libraries,"  by  Miss  PAULINE  LEIPZI- 
GER,  who  has  charge  of  several  libraries  in  New 

York 216 

LIFE  INSURANCE.     See  "  Trades  and  Business  Occupa- 
tions." 

MAIL  CARRIERS 

MARKET  GARDENS.     See  "  Realm  of  Agriculture." 

MEDICINE.     See  "  Learned  Professions." 

MILLINERS.     See   "  Industrial  Arts  "  and  "  Society   WTo- 

men  in  Business." 

MINISTRY.     See  "  Learned  Professions." 
MUSIC  TEACHERS. 

OIL  PAINTING.     See  "  Pictures  and   Statues." 
OPTICIANS.     See  "  Learned  Professions." 
PATENT  SOLICITING.         See  "  Learned  Professions." 
PHOTOGRAPHY.         See  "  Pictures   and    Statues  "     and 
"  Society  Women  in  Business." 


INDEX  TO  CONTENTS.  xj 

PAGE 

PHYSICAL  TRAINING.  By  MRS.  GENEVIEVE  STEB- 
BINS,  principal  of  the  New  York  School  of  Expres- 
sion, author  of  "  System  and  Expression,"  "  Dy- 
namic Breathing,"  "  Society  Gymnastics  "  and  the 
"  Genevieve  Stebbins  System  of  Physical  Training."  234 
PIANO  PLAYING. 

"  Accompanying  as  an  Art "  ;  the  school  of  Miss  Mabel 

McCall 91 

"  Begin  Early,"  by  MRS.  KATE  S.  CHITTENDEN, 
lecturer  on  the  synthetic  system  of  teaching  instru- 
mental music 80 

"Does  Piano  Study  Pay?"  by  MRS.  MILTONELLA 
BEARDSLEY,  soloist  and  teacher,  once  connected 
with  Theodore  Thomas's  Orchestra.  .  .  -85 

"  Playing  and  Teaching,"  by  MRS.  M.  AUGUSTA  BOS- 
WORTH,  a  specialist  in  piano  technique  for  many 
years  in  Chicago  and  New  York 88 

"The  Tuning  of  Pianos." 84 

"  The  Literary  Musicale,"  a  description  of  the  entertain- 
ments of  Mrs.  Stella  Hadden  Alexander  and  Miss 

Emma  Elise  West 90 

PICTURES  AND  STATUES. 

"  A  Talent  for  Sculpture,"  by  Miss  ENID  YANDELL,  the 
young  sculptor,  who  has  just  finished  a  bust  of 
Emma  Willard  for  Mrs.  Russell  Sage.  .  .  .226 

"  At  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago."          ....     233 

"  Pictorial  Illustration,"  by  IZORA  C.  CHANDLER,  artist 
in  black  and  white,  illustrator  of  books,  critic  and 
author.  . 222 

"  Portrait  Painting  Hard,"   by  Miss   HELEN  WATSON 

PHELPS,  artist  and  librarian 221 

"  Rockwood  Employs  Women,"  by  GEORGE  G.  ROCK- 
WOOD,  one  of  the  leading  photographers  for  a  gen- 
eration in  New  York  City 228 

"Women  as  Oil  Painters,"  by  MRS.  EMILY  MARIA 
SCOTT,  secretary  of  the  Water  Colour  Club  and  one 
of  the  best  rose  painters  in  the  United  States.  .  218 


xii  INDEX  TO  CONTENTS. 

POST-OFFICE    EMPLOYEES.     See  «•  Clerks  and  Opera-  * 

tors." 

PRIVATE  SECRETARIES.    See  ••  Clerks  and  Operators." 
PROOFREADERS.     See  "  Industrial  Arts." 
READING.     See  "  Dramatic  Art." 

REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

"  An  Authority  on  Fruit  Drying." 322 

"  A  Prosperous  Sheep  Raiser." 310 

"Cash  in  Cows,  Pigs,  Hens,"  by  MRS.  JANET  E. 
RUNTZ-REES,  of  Wallingford,  Conn.,  practical 

farmer 316 

"Goldfish   Farming." 323 

"  Horticultural  Fields." 323 

"Market  Gardens  Profitable,"  by  RUTH  TITUS,  a 
Quaker,  of  Flushing,  Long  Island,  a  student  and  ex- 

Pert.  315 

"Stock  Breeding." 321 

"  Why  Not  Raise  Cows  ?  "  by  MRS.  IONE  A.  VAN  GOR- 
DER,  conductor  of  a  creamery  in  South  America, 
where  she  had  the  management  of  one  thousand 
cows  and  rode  in  daylight  and  darkness  over  the 

pampa 304 

"  Women  Farmers,"  by  Miss  VIRGINIA  H.  HALL.        .    31 1 
SALESGIRLS.    See  "  Trade  and  Business  Occupations." 
SANITARY  LAUNDRY.     See  "  Household  Science." 
SCHOOL  OFFICERS.    See  "  Teaching." 
SEWING.    See  "  Industrial  Arts  "  and  "  Society  Women  in 

Business." 
SHOPPERS.     See  "Household    Science"  and    "Society 

Women  in  Business." 
SINGING.     See  "  Vocal  Music." 

SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS. 

"  A  Quaint  and  Daring  Idea,"  the  millinery  establish- 
ment of  Miss  Harman  Brown,  in  the  former  loft  of  a 
stable 283 

"  A  Real  Estate  Owner  in  San  JoseY'    .        .        .        .296 


INDEX  TO  CONTENTS.  xiii 

PAGE 

"  A  Studio  for  Colour  Study,"  a  description  of  the  enter- 
prise of  Mrs.  E.  N.  Vanderpoel 300 

"  An  Artistic  Shopper,"  the  work  of  Mrs.  Frederick  E. 
Parsons,  in  purchasing  for  cultured  people  outside  of 

the  metropolis. 289 

"  Dainty  Negligees,"  Miss  Carroll's  original  and  attrac- 
tive shop 293 

"Director  of  Weddings." 299 

"  Expert  in  Fashions." 288 

"  From  Ballroom  to  Shop,"  Miss   Schroeder's  success  in 

making  gowns 286 

"Lessee  of  a  Music  Hall." 292 

"  Special  Photography,"  the  art  of  Miss   Floride  Green, 

in  the  taking  of  photographs 297 

"  Women  in  Banking." 285 

STENOGRAPHERS.     See  "  Clerks  and  Operators." 

STORE  WINDOW  DRESSING 347 

TEACHING. 

"  Heads  of  Girls'  Schools,"  by  Miss  LOUISE  FISCHER,  of 
New  Brunswick,   N,   J.,  pupil  of  Emma  Willard 
School,  teacher  in  New  York  City,  and  daughter  of 
Prof.  Gustavus  Fischer,  of  Rutgers  College.     .        .        5 
"Noble  Array  of  Teachers,"  by   THOMAS  HUNTER, 
president  of  New  York  Normal  College,  who  makes 
a  plea  for  equal  compensation  to  men  and  women .         i 
"  Private  Schools,"  by  MRS.  J.  C.   HAZEN,  principal  of 

Mrs.   Hazen's  Suburban  School  for  Girls.        .        .      17 
"  Qualities  of  the  Teacher,"  by  Miss  LUCY  A.  YENDES, 
formerly  a  teacher,  now  editor  of  an  educational 
journal  and  lecturer  .        .        .        .        .        .        .n 

"  Women  as  School  Officers.         .        .        .        .        .19 

TELEGRAPHERS.    See  "  Clerks  and  Operators." 
TELEPHONE  GIRLS.    See  "  Clerks  and  Operators." 
TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS. 

"  Advertisement  Writing." 340 

"  Clever  Law  Book  Agents." 348 

"  Dressing  Store  Windows." 347 


xiv  INDEX  TO  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

"  Equestrianism,"  by  MRS.    EMILY  S.  BEACH,  eques- 
trienne, who  instructs  pupils  in  the  summer  time  in 
Newport,  R.  I.,  and  in  New  York  City  every  winter.     349 
"  Insure  Your  Life  !     Why  Not  ?  "     A  discussion  of  wo- 
men solicitors  for   life  insurance,  by  Miss  MINNIE 
TUMBLESON  BROWN,  one  of  the  most  successful  of 
her  class.  ........     324 

"One  Servants' Agency." 330 

"  Professional  Shoppers." 352 

"  Salesgirls  in  New  York,"  by  Miss  GRACE  H.  DODGE, 
educational  reformer,  once  a  School  Commissioner 
in  New  York  City,  daughter  of  William  E.  Dodge, 
and  an  earnest  worker  among  the  charities  and 
working-girls'  clubs  of  New  York  City.  .  .  .  335 

"  The  West  End  Exchange." 327 

"  Wages  of  Salesgirls." 339 

"  Women  as  Financiers.''         ......     330 

"  Workers  in  Glass." 353 

TRAINED  NURSES.     See  "Learned  Professions." 
TYPEWRITERS.     See  "  Clerks  and  Operators." 
VOCAL  MUSIC. 

"A  Wide-Field  for  Sweet  Voices.".  .  .  .  .64 
"  Beginners  in  Song  Parts,"  by  MRS.  EMILIE  L.FER- 
NANDEZ, who  supplies  places  for  more  chorus  girls 
than  any  other  manager  in  the  United  States,  phil- 
anthropist, and  an  officer  of  the  Professional  Wo- 
men's League 62, 

"  Music  Teachers." •    .       88 

"  Would  She  Be  a  Soprano  ?  "  by  Miss  MARIE  SEYMOUR 

BISSELL,   leading   soprano   in  church   choirs,  and 

trainer  of  such  soloists  as  Sarah  King  Peck,  Louise 

Fay,  Julian  Sterling  and  George  Hunt  Ensworth.      .       58, 

WOOD  CARVING,    See   "  Architecture  and  Dec.orat.ipn." 


WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN, 


TEACHING. 

NOBLE  ARRAY  OF  TEACHERS. 

Pedagogy  for  Women. — Feminine  Tact  and  Maternal  Gen- 
tleness Needed  for  Young  Children —  Why  Men  Teach- 
ers Get  More  Pay. 

FOR  children  of  both  sexes  under  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  old  women  are  more  successful  as  teachers  than 
men.  For  many  reasons,  after  this  period,  men  are 
better  adapted  for  the  management  and  instruction  of 
boys.  Girls  who  have  reached  the  age  of  sixteen  should 
be  taught  by  both  men  and  women  teachers.  Inasmuch 
as  the  vast  majority  of  the  fourteen  millions  of  children 
enrolled  in  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States  are 
below  the  age  of  thirteen,  it  naturally  follows  that  over 
two-thirds  of  the  teachers  are  women.  This  fact  always 
astonishes  European  visitors,  for  throughout  the  nations 
of  the  Old  World  the  reverse  of  this  is  true,  the  great 
majority  of  the  teachers  being  men,  even  in  the  lower 
primary  schools.  It  is  gratifying  to  learn,  however,  that 
in  recent  years  in  the  more  civilised  nations  of  Northern 
and  Western  Europe,  especially  in  Great  Britain,  the 
employment  of  women  teachers  is  greatly  on  the  increase. 

It  is  the  glory  of  the  United  States  that  order,  peace 
and  good  government  are  maintained  not  by  a  standing 
army  of  soldiers,  but  by  a  standing  army  of  four  hundred 


2  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

thousand  teachers.^ whom  nearly  three  hundred  thou- 
sand are  women.  As  the  women  teachers  instruct  the 
younger  children,  when  impressions  are  most  lasting  and 
when  their  characters  are  most  easily  formed — for  "  the 
child  is  father  to  the  man  " — it  follows  that  they  perform 
the  principal  work  in  making  good,  law-abiding  citizens. 
These  noble  women  have  been  the  propagandists  of 
honour,  courage  and  patriotism. 

It  is  a  trite  saying  that  great  men  have  had  great 
mothers.  Most  men  who  have  achieved  success  have 
had  some  woman — mother,  aunt,  sister  or  some  one 
dearer — to  spur  them  onward  and  upward.  How  many 
men  have  received  their  inspiration  from  women 
teachers  the  world  has  never  known,  never  will  know. 

The  late  Richard  Cobden,  the  distinguished  Corn  Law 
leader,  during  his  visit  to  the  United  States  in  1861, 
said,  in  a  speech  to  the  boys  of  the  Thirteenth  St.  school, 
that  the  most  beautiful  sight  he  saw  in  America  was  a 
district  school  in  Minnesota  taught  by  a  delicate  young 
woman  who  looked  not  more  than  eighteen,  many  of 
whose  pupils  were  farmers'  sons — big,  burly  boys,  any  one 
of  whom  might  have  seized  her  by  the  shoulders  and 
thrown  her  out  of  the  window.  He  concluded  with  these 
memorable  words  :  "  When  I  saw  such  obedience  to  law, 
such  perfect  order,  such  conformity  to  rule  under  the 
authority  of  a  mere  girl,  I  knew  the  Rebellion  was 
doomed  and  that  the  North  would  crush  the  South." 

Mr.  Cobden  might  have  gone  further  and  said  it  was 
the  public  schools  which  made  the  great  Republic,  and 
we  might  say  to-day  that  it  was  the  public  schools, 
mainly  conducted  by  women,  that  led  to  American 
triumph  and  glory  at  Manila  and  Santiago. 
[  For  children  between  fijve  and  thirteen  women  are 
iaturally  the  best  teachers,  because  the  maternal  instinct 


TEACHING.  3 

r  makes  them  patient  and  sympathetic,  and  their  quickness 
of  perception  gives  them  a  keener  insight  into  character, 

/  and  hence  they  are  better  able  and  more  willing  to  re- 
\   spect  the  individuality  of  their  pupils.     It  must  be  remem- 

I  bered   that   without   this  knowledge   of   each  individual 

\  pupil    there    can   never   be   good,   wholesome    teacfeng. 

L  Women   teachers  are  more  tactful  and  considerate  with 
the    younger   children   than   men   are,   and   it   must  be 

1  admitted  that  they  are,  as  a  rule,  more  spiritual  and  con- 
scientious.     These  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  in  all 

!   the   large   cities   four-fifths   of   the   classes  in  the  boys' 
schools  are  taught  by  women. 

I  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  women's  work  in  the  schools 
has  never  been  properly  appreciated,  especially  in  the 
important  matter  of  compensation.  After  all  is  said  and 
done,  the  salary  is  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the  im- 
portance and  dignity  of  the  office. 

Men  teachers,  as  a  rule,  for  similar  work  receive  30  per 
cent,  higher  salaries  than  women,  and  in  some  places 
more  than  50  per  cent. 

In  Commissioner  Harris's  report  for  1895  we  find  the 
following  facts  showing  the  difference  in  monthly  salaries  : 
In  New  York  men  teachers  receive  an  average  of 
$74.95  and  women  teachers  $51.33,  a  difference  in  favour 
of  the  men  of  30  per  cent.;  in  Massachusetts  men  receive 
$128.55  an(3  women  $48.38,  less  than  one-half  ;  in  Rhode 
Island,  men  $101.83  and  women  $50.06;  in  Connecticut, 
men  $85. 58  and  women  $41.88.  These  States  are  gener- 
ally ranked  among  the  most  enlightened  in  the  country, 
and  yet  this  glaring  injustice  seems  to  pass  unnoticed. 
In  Delaware  the  men  teachers  receive  $36.60,  the  women 
$34.08  ;  in  Maryland  the  men  $48,  the  women  $40.40;  in 
South  Carolina  the  men  $25.46,  the  women  $22.32  ;  in 
Florida  the  men  $35.50,  the  women  $34. 


4  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

From  these  figures  it  will  be  observed  that  when  the 
salaries  of  the  sexes  are  very  low  they  are  nearly  equal — 
that  is  to  say,  when  the  salary  of  the  man  is  beggarly 
that  of  the  woman  reaches  the  verge  of  starvation  and 
cannot  be  reduced  any  lower. 

An  argument,  if  argument  it  may  be  called,  commonly 
used  by  school  officials  in  favour  of  this  unjust  disparity 
between  the  salaries  of  men  and  women  who  perform  like 
service  is  that  men  have  usually  families  to  support. 
But  why  not  carry  this  argument  to  a  logical  conclusion  ? 
If  one  man  has  a  family  of  six  persons  he  is  entitled  to 
far  higher  compensation  than  a  man  who  has  a  family  of 
three  persons.  And  should  he  be  so  fortunate  as  to  have 
a  family  of  nine,  his  salary  ought  to  be  increased  three- 
fold. The  man  who  obtains  additional  compensation 
solely  on  account  of  the  size  of  his  family  is  simply  the 
recipient  of  charity.  Those  who  use  this  flimsy  argument 
against  equal  salary  for  equal  work  forget  that  thou- 
sands of  women  teachers  have  also  families  to  support — 
invalid  parents,  widowed  mothers  and  younger  brothers 
and  sisters. 

There  is,  however,  one  reason  why  men  teachers 
should  receive  higher  salaries  than  women,  and  that  is 
that  the  supply  of  women  teachers  greatly  exceeds  the 
demand,  and  the  reverse  is  the  case  as  regards  the  men. 
We  have  not  far  to  go  to  find  the  cause  for  this  deplor- 
able fact. 

In  the  ups  and  downs  of  American  life — rich  to-day 
and  poor  to-morrow — young  women  educated  in  "  finish- 
ing schools"  (which  never  finish)  are  often  suddenly 
called  upon  to  earn  a  living.  They  have  no  business 
talent,  they  are  unfit  for  literary  work,  they  are  ashamed 
to  do  menial  work,  and  hence  they  instinctively  turn  to 
teaching  as  the  one  respectable  calling  open  to  them. 


TEACHING.  5 

They  may  have  little  practical  education,  no  training 
whatever  and  not  even  love  for  the  work,  but  neverthe- 
less they  fancy  they  can  teach.  They  can  keep  school 
and  the  school  will  keep  them  until  they  can  do  better. 

There  is  a  great  future  for  women  teachers  in  the 
United  States.  Normal  colleges  and  schools,  teachers' 
institutes  and  normal  departments  of  great  universities, 
to  which  may  be  added  more  enlightened  superintendents, 
have  accomplished  excellent  results  during  the  last  ten 
or  fifteen  years  in  elevating  the  teacher's  vocation. 

The  study  of  psychology  and  its  application  to  the 
science  and  art  of  teaching  have  produced  a  superior 
class  of  women  teachers  who  can  readily  obtain  desirable 
places  at  good  salaries. 

THOS.  HUNTER. 


HEADS  OF  GIRLS'  SCHOOLS. 

Three  of  Them  Who  Were  Notable  for  Strength  of  Character. 

— Miss  Louise  Fischer  Explains  how  Success  Depends 

on  Personally  Impressing  Pupils. 

IT  has  been  said  that  a  conscientious  teacher,  no  matter 
how  successful  she  may  appear  to  be,  seldom  becomes 
rich  in  her  calling.  Nor  is  success  to  be  judged  by  the 
amount  of  money  laid  up,  for  there  are  other  things  more 
important,  one  of  which  is  the  kind  of  woman  that  is 
turned  out.  A  teacher's  influence  is  often  greater  than  a 
parent's.  Of  those,  whose  pupils  have  ever  been  anxious 
to  prolong  her  fame  and  extend  to  others  the  instruction 
received  from  her,  Emma  Willard's  name  is  perhaps 
best  known. 

Such  women  as   Mrs.   Russell  Sage,  Mrs.  John  Munn, 


6  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Miss  Maria  Mitchell  and  Miss  Mary  Knox,  most  of  whom 
were  pupils  of  the  honoured  Emma  Willard,  the  pioneer  of 
the  higher  education  of  women,  have  written  so  much 
and  so  well  of  her  that  one  who  knew  her  only  after  she 
had  given  her  work  into  the  hands  of  her  noble  daughter- 
in-law,  Mrs.  John  Willard,  can  scarcely  do  her  justice. 

In  1814,  when  she  began  her  life  as  a  teacher  in  Middle- 
bury,  Vt.,  she  was  already  known,  not  only  as  an  earnest 
and  intellectual  but  also  as  a  learned  and  highly  accom- 
plished woman.  Sixteen  years  before  the  college  at 
Holyoke  was  founded,  in  1821,  she  opened  a  school  for  a 
broader  education  for  girls,  and  one  that  was  far  in 
advance  of  the  times.  She  evolved  a  new  spirit  in  educa- 
tiori|  and  through  her  it  rose  in  the  first  half  of  the  cen- 
tury to  be  a  sustaining  social  order.  Her  influence  was 
felt  far  and  wide,  and  her  boarding  and  day  school  in 
Troy  became  famous,  not  only  all  over  this  country,  but 
in  France,  where  Lafayette,  who  truly  admired  the 
stately,  noble  woman,  whose  face  showed  her  character, 
had  made  it  known.  In  England,  too,  where  her  histor- 
ies were  used,  she  was  highly  estimated. 

Her  philanthropy  was  as  great  as  her  learning,  and  no 
one  desirous  of  a  good  education  ever  appealed  to  her  in 
vain  ;  nor  was  there  any  difference  shown  between  the 
rich  girl  whose  purse  was  lavishly  supplied  with  money 
and  the  poor  one  dependent  on  her  bounty  ;  and  no  one 
ever  found  out  from  her  upon  whom  she  bestowed  her 
benefits. 

Much  was  made  of  public  examinations,  which  were 
conducted  by  the  most  celebrated  professors  from  the 
college.  Everything  was  done  upon  a  broad  and  thorough 
plan,  just  as  it  is  now  in  the  new  Emma  Willard  Seminary, 
in  Troy. 

Her  dress  was  never  showy,  but  always  rich   and   in 


TEACHING.  7 

perfect  taste,  for  she  understood  the  power  which  a  fault- 
less attire  gives  a  teacher,  not  only  over  her  pupils  but 
even  over  their  parents  and  the  world  at  large.  She  was 
a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  was  buried  from 
St.  Paul's,  in  Troy,  in  1870. 

Perhaps  no  school  in  this  country  was  ever  larger,  yet 
at  her  death  she  was  by  no  means  a  rich  woman. 

In  Constance  Fenimore  Woolson's  "  Anne,"  Mrs.  Van- 
horn  thus  speaks  of  Mme.  Moireau's  school :  "  An  estab- 
lishment where  the  extreme  of  everything  is  taught,  and 
much  nonsense  is  learned  in  the  latest  style." 

Mme.  Moireau  is  described  as  "a  Frenchwoman,  small 
and  old,  with  a  thin,  shrunken  face  and  large  features. 
She  wore  a  plain  black  satin  gown,  the  narrow  skirt 
gathered  in  the  old-fashioned  style,  and  falling  straight 
to  the  floor.  She  was  never  a  handsome  woman  even  in 
her  youth,  and  she  was  now  seventy-five  years  old  ;  yet 
she  was  charming." 

The  character  of  Mme.  Moireau  was  drawn  from  the 
celebrated  Mme.  Chegaray,  who  came  to  New  York  dur- 
ing the  insurrection  of  the  slaves  in  San  Domingo,  and 
who  established  in  Madison  Avenue  a  fashionable  school 
for  young  women.  The  pupil  Anne  was  Constance  Feni- 
more Woolson  herself,  who  was  considered  a  good  scholar, 
but  rather  eccentric.  Her  description  of  Mme.  Chegaray 
is  true  to  life.  The  noted  teacher  was  a  woman  of 
marked  character,  and  her  school  was  for  a  long  time 
patronised  by  many  of  the  best  New  York  families,  as 
well  as  by  rich  Southerners.  This  was  before  the  Civil 
War.  It  was  said  that  no  matter  how  awkward  a  girl  was 
when  she  came  there,  when  she  left  she  was  a  graceful 
and  polished  woman  who  had  "  learned  to  put  on  the  right 
clothes  in  the  right  way." 

Other  schools  might  have  public  examinations,  and  aim 


8  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

at  higher  education,  but  Mme.  Chegaray  knew  nothing  of 
such  innovations.  She  tried  simply  to  make  her  pupils 
gracefully  feminine,  and  she  accomplished  much  good  in 
a  mannerless  generation.  She  possessed  that  tact  and 
graciousness  of  mien  which  are  not  easily  acquired,  and 
which  are  the  qualities  that  have  made  Mrs.  Cleveland 
and  Mrs.  Hobart  so  helpful  to  their  husbands.  • 

After  the  French  and  German  fashion,  her  girls  were 
taught  to  address  her  with  the  affectionate  "  tante,"  and 
when  they  came  or  left  were  kissed  on  both  cheeks.  All 
her  pupils  were  fond  of  her,  for  she  had  the  wisdom  to 
know  that  it  is  detrimental  to  gain  even  a  dog's  ill-will. 
She  was  always  dressed  in  exquisite  taste,  like  a  real 
Frenchwoman,  but  never  used  her  clothes  to  disguise  her 
age. 

Although  the  school  was  for  so  long  the  largest  and 
most  expensive  in  the  city,  she  died  at  the  age  of  ninety- 
eight,  at  the  home  of  her  old  friends,  the  De  Russeys,  in 
New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  a  poor  woman  ;  the  two  fortunes 
which  she  had  made  in  teaching  had  been  spent  upon  her 
relatives. 

She  died  as  she  had  lived,  a  faithful  but  by  no  means 
bigotted  Roman  Catholic. 

In  the  thirties  the  City  Fathers  of  the  good  old  Dutch 
town  of  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  felt  the  need  of  a  thorough 
school  for  girls.  The  college  and  preparatory  school  of 
Rutgers  provided  adequate  advantages  for  the  boys,  but 
no  one  in  that  day  would  have  allowed  the  girls  to  be 
educated  under  the  same  roof.  Even  in  the  sixties  Dr. 
Howard  Crosby  shocked  the  community  by  proposing 
such  a  thing,  and  to-day  the  girls  can  go  no  further  than 
the  preparatory  school.  The  townspeople  wanted  a  wo- 
man to  teach  their  future  women,  and,  as  no  one  com- 
petent for  the  position  could  be  procured  at  home,  a  com- 


TEACHING.  9 

mittee  was  appointed  to  seek  one  elsewhere.  In  Darien, 
Conn.,  a  young  girl,  not  yet  twenty,  was  becoming  known 
as  a  teacher,  and  the  report  reached  the  slow  old  town 
that  she  could  make  even  the  dullest  pupil  learn  and  the 
most  unruly  behave  ;  that  a  tap  from  her  switch  brought 
to  order  the  most  restless.  In  those  days  it  was  believed 
that 

"  A  woman,  a  dog  or  a  walnut  tree — 
The  more  you  beat  them,  the  better  they  be." 

A  deputation,  consisting  of  David  Vail,  Ephraim  Smith 
and  a  few  others,  therefore  secured  Hannah  Hoyt's  ser- 
vices. The  school  building  still  stands  on  the  corner  of 
George  and  Paterson  Streets.  It  is  now  used  as  a  post- 
office,  but  for  over  forty  years  Miss  Hoyt  kept  school 
there. 

It  was  the  best-known  and  most-successful  school  that 
New  Jersey  has  ever  had,  and  the  boarders  came  from 
every  part  of  the  country.  In  my  day  we  found  that  she 
cut  her  pupils  more  with  her  sharp  tongue  than  with  her 
rod,  although  the  lazy  ones  frequently  had  their  ears 
flipped  by  her  nimble  fingers.  At  the  present  day  a 
teacher  whose  temper  is  not  more  serene  could  hardly 
succeed. 

Miss  Hoyt  tried  to  keep  dull  pupils  up  with  the  bright 
ones,  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter.  Her 
method  was  something  like  that  of  the  public  schools,  and 
lessons  were  reviewed  again  and  again,  until  even  the 
slowest  knew  them  by  heart.  Indeed,  she  insisted  upon 
having  the  history,  as  well  as  most  of  the  other  lessons, 
repeated  word  for  word.  Consequently,  a  book  was 
seldom  finished,  as  this  is  slow  work,  but  at  the  end  of  the 
year  it  was  dropped,  and  a  new  one  taken  up  the  next 
term. 


io  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

It  was  almost  impossible  not  to  learn  arithmetic  thor- 
'oughly  from  her,  as  no  rule  was  left  until  each  member  of 
the  class  had  mastered  every  example  under  it,  and  the 
year's  work  was  again  reviewed  at  the  close  of  school. 

The  public  examinations  were  a  great  bugbear  and  were 
conducted  by  Rutgers  professors,  but,  as  most  of  the  sub- 
jects had  been  committed  to  memory,  there  were  seldom 
any  failures. 

She  cared  little  for  dress,  and  the  same  clothes  were 
worn  for  years  without  any  alterations,  but  she  was  never 
untidy.  She  was  a  most  conscientious  teacher,  made 
much  of  Latin  and  Greek,  and  thought  that  life  required 
sterner  stuff  than  the  so-called  accomplishments,  of  which 
she  possessed  none  herself. 

Although  her  school  was  always  well  attended  and  her 
tastes  were  simple,  she  died  in  the  seventies,  possessing 
little  money.  She  was  a  strict  Presbyterian  of  the  old 
school. 

Of  all  the  schools  in  New  York  City,  not  one  has  pros- 
pered for  so  many  years  under  the  same  management  as 
that  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Gardner.  As  I  am  writing  of  women 
I  cannot  at  present  say  anything  of  the  genial,  kind- 
hearted  doctor. 

Mrs.  Gardner  was  a  pupil  and  a  teacher  at  Mme.  Emma 
Willard's,  and  afterward  taught  at  Mme.  Chegaray's.  In 
her  teaching  and  bearing  one  can  see  the  influence  of 
both  these  great  educators.  Earnest  and  dignified,  and 
requiring  faithful  and  intelligent  study,  yet  laying  almost 
as  much  stress  upon  outward  appearance  as  Mme.  Che- 
garay  herself,  she  takes  a  personal  interest  in  her  pupils' 
recreations  as  well  as  in  their  studies.  She  does  not  al- 
ways grant  their  requests,  but  they  know  that  she  will  be 
just  to  them,  for  she  is  kind  and  sympathetic.  It  is  said 
that  she  has  never  been  known  to  lose  her  temper  ;  there- 


TEACHING.  n 

fore  all  respect  her,  and  some  of  the  finest  women  in  our 
country  have  been  her  pupils. 

Her  favourite  branch  of  study  is  geometry,  and  no  girl 
ever  graduates  from  her  school  who  does  not  thoroughly 
understand  that  science  as  far  as  she  has  gone  into  it. 
Her  "  Histories  in  Rhyme,"  too,  are  a  great  aid  to  this 
study.  The  examinations  are  always  written,  and  she 
keeps  her  school  up  with  the  times. 

She  is  a  member  of  Doctor  Parkhurst's  church  and  is 
also  his  friend  and  admirer. 

These  great  teachers,  then,  owe  their  success  to  their 
tact,  their  gracious  manner  ;  to  the  requiring  of  thorough- 
ness in  study,  not  making  class  distinctions  ;  to  an  indi- 
vidual interest  in  their  pupils,  and  to  serene  tempers, 
impartiality,  carefulness  in  their  own  dress  and  requiring 
the  same  from  their  pulpils  ;  to  stamping  their  personality 
upon  those  whom  they  teach,  and  to  keeping  up  to,  and 

if  possible  ahead  of,  the  times. 

LOUISE  FISCHER, 
New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 


QUALITIES  OF  THE  TEACHER. 

The  Requisites  for  Success  and  the  Cost  of  Preparation. — How 

Women  May  Fit  Themselves  to  Teach,  and  the  Duties 

and  Rewards  of  the  Profession. 

"WHAT  is  requisite?"  Character  first,  for  she  who  is 
to  mould  character  must  possess  it.  This  embodies  such 
qualities  as  integrity,  accuracy,  punctuality,  self-control, 
cheer,  courage,  patience  and  dozens  of  the  minor  lights 
which  illuminate  the  personality  and  make  a  magnet  of 
the  teacher. 

Education  comes  next  ;  but  not  all,  nor  nearly  all,  of  it 


12  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

is  to  be  gained  from  books  or  at  school.  Some  of  it  must 
be  so  acquired,  but  this  must  be  added  to,  supplemented 
and  enriched  by  observation,  experience  and  contact  with 
life — places,  people  and  things.  A  high-school  and 
normal-school  training  will  put  into  systematic  order  that 
which  has  been  already  gained,  will  broaden  the  horizon 
and  help  to  "  level  up  "  to  a  high  ideal.  The  more  time 
that  can  be  given  to  study  the  better,  but  no  one  need 
despair  of  doing  good  work  as  a  teacher  even  if  college 
and  university  degrees  are  unknown. 

Health  is  the  next  important  factor  for  success  as  a 
teacher,  and  this  must  be  built  up  ;  petted  and  caressed 
if  weak,  and  looked  after  in  points  of  air — breathing  and 
ventilation — dress,  diet,  bathing,  exercise,  rest  and  recrea- 
tion. Each  of  these  needs  attention,  and  in  detail. 
Headaches,  backaches,  dyspepsia,  etc.,  should  be  un- 
known to  the  teacher  who  must  meet  and  face  problems 
of  intellect,  morals  and  physical  progress,  taking  the 
mother's  place  in  a  measure,  and  often  that  of  doctor, 
pastor  and  friend,  as  well  as  teacher. 

Teaching  makes  a  great  drain  on  vitality,  and  teachers 
need  good  food  in  large  quantities,  easy  dress  and  plenty 
of  out-of-door  air,  with  at  least  eight  hours  of  sleep  on  a 
good  bed  in  a  dark,  quiet,  well-ventilated  room. 

Common-sense  is  an  absolute  requirement  in  the  dis- 
position of  a  successful  teacher,  and  after  she  has  learned 
all  the  principles  of  psychology  and  pedagogy— if  that 
were  possible — if  she  has  not  common  sense  to  apply  and 
adapt  them  she  will  find  herself  on  the  minus  side  of  the 
sign.  Learn  to  think  for  yourself,  and  to  use  common 
sense  in  all  your  work.  This  includes  tact,  courtesy  and 
patience. 

The  cost  of  preparation  depends  upon  where  that  pre- 
paration is  made.  In  New  York  City  there  is  a  Normal 


TEACHING.  13 

Training  College  for  Girls,  presided  over  by  Dr.  Thomas 
Hunter  and  free  to  the  public,  or  at  least  to  such  as  can 
pass  the  entrance  examination.  For  the  girl  who  has  a 
home  in  New  York  where  she  will  not  have  to  pay  board, 
and  if  carfare  is  not  a  necessary  "expense,  the  cost  will 
depend  upon  the  amount  she  must  spend  for  clothing  and 
incidentals.  Good  board,  with  rooms,  can  be  had  as  low 
as  $5  a  week,  for  those  who  have  no  home  here,  and  the 
course  will  occupy  three  or  four  years,  dependent  upon 
the  girl's  ability. 

New  York  State  has  a  dozen  or  so  State  normal  col- 
leges. They  are  situated  at  Oswego,  Albany,  Brockport, 
Potsdam,  Fredonia,  Geneseo,  Cortland,  Oneonta,  New 
Paltz,  Jamaica,  etc.,  where  the  tuition,  text-books,  etc., 
are  free  and  the  living  expenses  low.  Certificates  from 
any  of  these  pass  current  as  testimony  of  ability  in  most 
places,  although  some  superintendents  will  not  endorse 
them.  Most  of  the  other  States  have  similar  institutions, 
supplemented  by  teachers'  training  classes  in  academy, 
high  school  and  union  school. 

The  county  institutes  and  county  normal  schools,  held 
from  one  to  six  weeks  annually  in  most  States,  also  help 
the  struggler  after  "  more  light,"  or  at  least  that  is  their 
mission.  If  a  teacher  wants  to  climb,  the  ways  and  means 
are  many,  the  open  doors  numerous. 

I  think  the  great  tendency  of  the  city  teachers  to-day  is 
to  do  too  much,  rather  than  too  little,  in  the  way  of  self- 
help  along  the  lines  of  study  ;  but  in  the  case  of  the 
young  and  the  inexperienced  girl  this  is  almost  indispen- 
sable. In  her  case  I  always  advise  :  Go  slowly.  Study  for 
a  term  or  a  year  ;  then  stop  and  put  in  practice  what  you 
have  learned,  and  sift  the  useful  from  the  merely  orna- 
mental, selecting  what  you  need,  and  then  go  back  to 
pick  up  the  next  year's  study  with  added  intelligence. 


14  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

"Salary?"  That  depends.  If  you  begin  in  a  country 
district  in  the  summer  you  may  have  to  take  as  low  as  $3 
a  week  ;  in  the  winter  that  same  school  will  be  likely  to 
pay  about  $7,  possibly  as  high  as  $10.  From  this  point 
the  salary  ranges  all  the  way  up  to  $15  in  the  country  and 
higher  in  some  cities,  although  the  grade  teacher  who  is 
doing  first-year  work  anywhere  need  not  be  alarmed  over 
any  prospect  of  an  immediate  access  of  surplus  wealth,  as 
the  world  reckons  wealth.  Promotion  and  price  depend 
more  upon  the  individual  than  upon  set  conditions.  I 
have  known  a  beginner  to  go  into  a  primary  department 
and  get  $400  a  year.  Make  yourself  indispensable  any- 
where, and  price  will  never  be  an  objection. 

Work  in  the  private  schools  is  usually  easier  and  some- 
times better  paid. 

There  are  few  situations  where  greater  helplessness  is 
felt,  where  one  is  more  at  sea  without  compass,  sail,  mast 
or  rudder,  than  that  which  confronts  the  'young  graduate 
who  for  the  first  time  finds  herself  face  to  face  with  from 
thirty  to  sixty  active  typical  young  Americans.  Hereto- 
fore she  has  had  behind  her  the  critic  teacher,  while  before 
her  were  the  well-bred  children  of  the  "  model "  school  in 
which  she  has  had  her  meagre  training — our  own  City  Nor- 
mal College  gave  weeks  of  this  work  during  the  last  year  of 
the  course.  One's  beautiful  theories  of  pedagogy  scatter 
like  dust  before  the  wind  in  the  face  of  this  little  king- 
dom of  restless,  keen-eyed,  loving  or  disobedient  subjects, 
as  the  case  may  be. 

How,  then,  shall  she  go  to  work  ?  What  is  the  first 
thing  to  be  done  and  how  ?  How  are  the  first  steps  to  be 
taken  which  shall  draw  her  nearer  to  the  gilded  palace  of 
success  ? 

First — I  would  say,  practice  the  fine  art  of  adaptation. 
Fit  your  work  and  working  manner  to  the  conditions  by 


TEACHING.  15 

which  you  find  yourself  surrounded,  be  these  what  they 
may.  Don't  climb  imaginary  ladders  in  order  to  reach 
up  after  stars  to  crumble  for  your  class,  when  all  that 
they  require  to  give  light  is  a  plain  tallow-dip.  Don't 
be  too  highly  scientific,  in  other  words,  for  the  common 
understanding  of  the  average  child—for  you  will  find  your- 
self dealing  with  "averages"  much  oftener  than  with 
prodigies.  The  precocious  are  less  in  need  of  your  help, 
anyway,  than  is  the  common  child.  Use  common  sense 
and  avoid  extremes. 

Second  (and  to  many  this  ought  to  have  been  first) — 
Don't  give  too  much  thought  to  your  personal  dignity. 
Most  of  us  have  a  great  natural  capacity  for  trying  to 
"show  off,"  and  there's  no  keener-eyed  detective  in  this 
line  than  the  average  young  American.  Real  dignity  he 
appreciates  ;  but  you  had  better  get  rid  of  that  which 
has  to  be  advertised  in  order  to  keep  it  in  full  blossom  for 
tl.e  benefit  of  spectators.  Cultivate  sympathy,  common 
sense,  patience  with  human  nature,  rather  than  waste  too 
much  vitality  on  bolstering  up  a  false  dignity  ;  but  always 
dignify  your  dignified  profession  by  your  love  for  and 
enthusiasm  in  it.  Put  your  best  into  it,  and  make  every- 
thing else  subordinate  thereto,  and  you  will  not  need  to 
plead  for  your  dignity. 

Third — Take  counsel  of  experience.  Don't  for  one  mo- 
ment think  that  because  you  have  graduated,  and  even  with 
high  honours,  you  are  going  to  steer  clear  of  trouble,  even 
though  you  have  a  guide  book  in  your  cabin  locker  that 
tells  you  how  to  meet  the  ordinary  events  of  your  work. 
You  will  find  the  first  few  years  full  of  emergencies  that 
seldom  come  alone  and  never  twice  alike.  These  you 
must  meet  at  the  moment.  Judge  for  yourself  rather 
than  depend  too  closely  upon  what  some  one  else  thinks 
is  bestfoi  >ou  undei  special  or  given  circumstances.  Get 


16  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

your  general  principles  from  everywhere  and  from  every- 
body, but  learn  to  make  the  personal  application  yourself. 
You  know  the  individual  needs  of  your  class  or  school 
after  you  have  been  in  the  work  for  a  time  better  than 
any  one  else  can  tell  you  them,  if  you  have  done  faithful, 
conscientious  work — or  else  you  have  missed  your  calling 
and  would  better  change  it. 

Fourth — Avoid  unpleasant  criticism  of  your  patrons, 
your  officials,  your  associates,  your  pupils,  especially  in 
public.  Fault-finding  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon,  and  a 
public  rehearsal  is  rarely  beneficial.  Help  to  root  out 
error  wherever  you  find  it,  even  at  the  risk  of  losing  your 
official  head. 

Fifth — Learn  all  that  is  possible  about  your  pupils,  as  to 
heredity,  environment,  character  and  its  causes,  and  then 
train  accordingly.  Your  full  duty  is  not  done  when  the 
lessons  of  the  day  have  been  developed.  You  must  put 
each  child  in  the  way  of  making  the  most  of  himself  and 
of  his  opportunities.  This  covers  a  larger  ground  than 
even  the  broadest  curriculum,  but  is  the  minimum  limita- 
tion which  you  should  allow  yourself  at  the  outset.  And 
you  will  often  find  yourself  tempted  to  give  too  much 
attention  to  the  "black  sheep"  of  your  fold.  Guard, 
watch  and  feed  them  all  carefully,  wisely  and  lovingly — 
but  don't  rob  Peter  to  pay  Paul. 

And,  finally,  look  out  for  yourself  financially,  socially, 
spiritually,  mentally,  physically.  If  you  find  any  part  of 
your  nature  suffering  because  of  your  work,  change  it,  or 
change  something  in  the  work  that  will  bring  you  up  to 
your  highest  standard  and  help  you  to  reach  out  to  the 
ideal  which  you  have  pictured.  Less  than  this  you  have 
no  right  to  accept  in  justice  to  yourself  and  to  all  con- 
cerned. Self-sacrifice  is  beautiful  in  the  abstract  ;  but  if 
you  are  a  really  good  teacher  you  are  a  real  blessing  to 


TEACHING.  17 

the  entire  world,  and  neither  the  general  world  nor  your 
corner  of  it  can  afford  to  let  you  immolate  yourself  upon 
a  fanatical  altar  of  sacrifice. 

Take  as  great  care  of  your  health  as  you  do  of  that  of 
your  pupils,  and  don't  go  into  school  jaded  by  overwork 
— nor  overplay,  for  there  is  such  a  thing — pressed  down 
by  home  cares  and  outside  duties,  nor  give  up  all  your 
leisure  to  attending  pedagogical  meetings. 

Get  just  as  much  real,  genuine  fun  out  of  life  as  you 
can,  and  while  it  is  your  duty  to  take,  read  and  digest 
professional  literature,  and  to  attend  professional  lectures 
occasionally,  I  advise  that  you  do  not  confine  yourself  to 
these  :  but  that  you  frequently  seek  cheer,  courage  and 
information  outside  of  them.  Mix  with  the  world  socially 
and  in  business,  so  that  you  do  not  dwarf  and  grow  nar- 
row in  your  outlook.  Read  people,  places  and  events,  and 
profit  as  you  read  and  experience,  making  all  bring  fish 
to  your  net. 

And,  withal,  be  not  discouraged  at  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  before  you,  but  of  good  cheer,  remembering  that  it  is 
only  by  little  and  little  that  perfection  in  anything  is 
gained,  and  that,  no  matter  what  your  discouragements 
may  be,  some  one  else  has  had  the  same  thing  to  contend 
with,  and  that  you  can  rise  superior  to  them  all  and  make 
each  a  stepping-stone  to  something  higher,  greater,  nobler. 

LUCY  A.  YENDES. 


PRIVATE  SCHOOLS. 

They  Fill  a  Large  Place  in  American  Life. 

WHATEVER  one  may  think  about  the  advantages  of  the 
public  school  for  the  average  American  boy  or  girl,  the 
fact  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  a  large  place  in  our 


i8  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

social  system  for  the  strictly  private  school.  In  manag- 
ing the  education  of  girls  in  such  institutions  many 
charming  women  find  congenial  and  often  profitable  occu- 
pation. 

These  schools  give  at  least  a  comfortable  maintenance 
to  their  organizers,  with  a  chance  of  something  more. 
It  is  true  that  few  proprietors  of  girls'  schools  have  retired 
with  fortunes,  or  with  anything  more  than  a  modest  com- 
petence. It  is  also  true  that  many  who  began  with 
nothing  have  ended  their  careers  with  no  more  than  when 
they  began.  Yet  the  cause  of  failure  to  save  a  goodly 
sum  from  the  earnings  of  a  private  school  has  almost 
always  been  a  lack  of  business  judgment,  which  would 
have  led  to  the  same  result  in  any  other  occupation. 

A  woman  who  must  undertake  her  own  support  begins 
the  conduct  of  a  private  school  with  the  best  chances  of 
success  if  she  starts  with  a  capital  of  wide  personal 
acquaintance,  which  may  have  been  acquired  in  social  life 
or  as  an  assistant  in  another  school.  Mothers  who  medi- 
tate intrusting  their  children  to  the  care  of  some  other 
woman,  who  must  be  to  the  young  people  during  the 
period  of  homesickness  and  in  times  of  illness  a  second 
mother  to  them  as  well  as  a  teacher,  need  to  know  some- 
thing about  the  qualifications  of  the  head  of  the  private 
school.  Personal  acquaintance  is  better  than  public  repu- 
tation as  a  means  of  winning  the  confidence  of  parents, 
especially  in  the  early  years  of  the  school. 

The  most  successful  private  school  for  girls  are  located 
in  or  near  the  large  cities.  The  cities  themselves  are 
educational,  with  their  museums,  libraries,  art  galleries 
and  opportunities  for  enjoying  the  drama  or  opera.  At 
the  same  time,  no  location  is  complete  unless  it  is  thor- 
oughly healthful,  and  unless  there  is  a  sufficient  popula- 
tion in  the  close  vicinity  to  make  it  possible  to  obtain  a 


TEACHING.  19 

good  attendance  of  day  scholars,  who  live  at  home  but  go 
to  the  school  every  day  for  recitations. 

With  location  well  selected,  with  a  good  acquaintance 
to  begin  with,  proper  advertising  and  suitable  reference, 
there  is  no  reason  why  a  sympathetic  and  intelligent 
woman  should  not  do  well  in  the  management  of  a  girls' 
school.  And  there  is  a  field  for  the  employment  of  sev- 
eral other  women  in  each  of  these  schools  as  teachers  and 
housekeepers. 

No  such  school  can  begin  its  existence  without  some 
financial  capital.  This  is  not  often  difficult  to  obtain  in 
some  of  the  suburbs  of  a  large  city.  A  first-class  girls' 
school  adds  to  the  attractions  of  the  suburb  for  the  better 
class  of  residences,  and  is  an  excellent  advertisement  of 
the  suburb  itself.  In  a  number  of  well-known  cases  those 
who  have  realty  interests  in  a  suburban  village,  with  an 
intelligent  regard  for  their  own  interests,  aided  actively 
in  the  establishment  of  a  private  school.  In  one  way  or 
another,  whether  the  ambitious  woman  locate  her  school  in 
the  city  itself  or  in  a  suburban  town,  she  must  obtain  the 
means  to  furnish  one  or  more  buildings  with  the  proper 
outfit,  and  if  the  enterprise  succeeds  she  may  expect  to 
pay  all  her  borrowed  money,  and  become  sole  proprietor 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years.  From  that  time  on  she  may 
expect  to  lay  something  by  for  the  "  rainy  day,"  besides 
winning  distinction  in  the  noble  profession  of  educators. 

MRS.  J.  C.  HAZEN. 


WOMEN  AS  SCHOOL  OFFICERS. 

IN  the  field  of  education  woman  finds  her  employment 
mainly  as  teacher  or  the  proprietor  of  a  private  school. 
She  is  eligible,  however,  to  a  share  in  the  management  of 


20  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

the  public  schools  in  several  States ;  and,  while  the  total 
number  of  offices  open  to  women  is  comparatively  small, 
yet  it  is  worth  while  to  mention  the  facts. 

In  Colorado  and  Wyoming  women  are  the  State  super- 
intendents of  schools. 

There  are  twelve  city  superintendents  of  schools  who 
are  women,  and  228  women  who  are  county  superintend- 
ents of  schools  in  the  United  States. 

Women  may  hold  the  office  of  county  superintendent  in 
Connecticut,  Idaho,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Louisi- 
ana, Minnesota,  Montana,  North  Dakota,  Oregon,  Penn- 
sylvania, South  Dakota,  Tennessee,  Wisconsin  and  Wyom- 
ing. 

In  all  the  States  named,  except  Kentucky,  Montana, 
Tennessee  and  Wyoming,  she  can  hold  nearly  every 
school  office  there  is. 

In  New  York  State  women  can  be  school  district  officers 
and  commissioners. 

And,  finally,  women  can  be  local  town  or  district  school 
officers  in  Arizona,  California,  Colorado,  Iowa,  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Nebraska,  New  Jersey,  Ohio 
and  Vermont. 


AUTHORSHIP. 

FICTION  A  HOPEFUL  FIELD. 

Woman  in  Literature. — The  Greatest  Mistake  Is  to  Write 
about  Things  Outside  One's  Range  of  Personal  Knowledge. 

THE  outlook  for  woman  in  literature  is  not  very  differ- 
ent from  her  outlook  in  any  other  field  or  profession. 
The  woman  who  would  succeed  in  authorship  or  editor- 
ship must  remember  that  literature,  like  art,  is  a  jealous 
mistress,  and  permits  of  few  rivals.  She  must  be  willing 
to  consecrate  her  time,  thought  and  strength  to  the  work 
she  has  in  hand.  Qualities  of  accuracy,  promptness, 
method  and  fidelity  are  as  important  here  as  elsewhere. 
She  needs,  too,  a  certain  business  knack,  so  that  she  may 
adapt  her  wares  to  her  purchasers. 

If  journalism  be  the  aim  of  the  ambitious  young  girl  just 
leaving  college,  it  is  quite  probable  that  she  may  have  to 
begin  on  the  lowest  round  of  the  ladder  and  work  her  way 
up,  and  while  there  is  room  at  the  top,  the  lower  rounds  are 
apt  to  be  very  crowded.  Therefore  the  young  woman 
who  means  to  succeed  will  disdain  no  small  assignment, 
and  will  undertake  willingly  any  obscure  task  which  may 
be  given  to  her.  While -the  broad  culture  and  mental 
discipline  which  are  her  dower  from  her  college  will 
enable  her  to  do  the  best  work  wherever  she  may  be 
placed,  she  will  soon  discover  that  what  we  used  to  call 
"  the  ordinary  English  branches  "  will  stand  her  in  good 
stead  in  the  daily  task. 


22  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

The  successful  woman  author  or  journalist  must  know 
how  to  spell,  and  must  be  so  impressed  with  her  duty  to 
her  mother  tongue  that  she  will  use  it  with  correctness 
and  elegance.  An  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  masters 
of  literature  will  greatly  assist  her,  partly  in  an  enriched 
vocabulary,  partly  in  facility  in  writing,  partly  in  grace  of 
style  ;  but  when  all  else  is  said,  writers  are  born  and  not 
made.  One  finds  the  writing  talent  cropping  up  unex- 
pectedly in  some  bright  girl  who  has  had  comparatively 
limited  advantages,  while  it  is  entirely  absent  from  one  to 
whom  the  schools  have  lavishly  given  all  they  had  to 
bestow  ;  and  therefore,  to  begin  with,  one  who  aspires  to 
success  must  have,  at  least  to  a  certain  extent,  this  blessed 
writing  talent  which  the  fairies  have  dropped  into  her 
cradle  at  her  birth. 

These  are  days  when  everybody  reads  and  almost  every- 
body else  tries  to  furnish  the  reading.  The  special  temp- 
tation of  the  novice  is  to  attempt  that  which  is  lofty  and 
far  afield.  A  woman  who  knows  all  about  dishcloths  and 
dusters  sends  verses  to  the  magazines,  and  is  dismayed  at 
finding  them  declined.  The  possibility  is,  had  she  written 
about  homely  house-keeping  and  sent  her  work  to  a 
homely  house-keeping  paper,  it  would  have  been  received 
and  paid  for. 

Common  sense  is  a  requisite  of  success  in  all  depart- 
ments of  life.  It  is  very  evident  that  one  must  have  a 
certain  amount  of  this  if  she  would  make  her  mark  any- 
where. In  accordance  with  this  plain,  every-day  essential, 
the  literary  aspirant  will  make  herself  depended  upon.  If 
she  undertakes  to  do  a  thing,  she  will  do  it.  If  she  prom- 
ises to  be  at  a  given  place  at  a  given  hour,  she  will  keep 
her  appointment.  She  will  not  neglect  her  health,  for  on 
its  maintenance  hangs  her  ability  to  keep  her  word  when 
she  has  made  an  engagement. 


AUTHORSHIP.  23 

Perhaps  the  greatest  danger  in  her  case  will  be  that  she 
will  attempt  too  much.  A  woman  simply  cannot  succeed 
in  literature  or  journalism  and  at  the  same  time  go  freely 
into  society  or  devote  all  her  evenings  to  amusement. 
She  will  need  her  full  modicum  of  sleep.  She  should  have 
good  food,  and  plenty  of  it.  She  will  find  it  wise  to  dress 
with  a  view  to  going  about  comfortably  and  at  her  ease  in 
all  weathers.  Not  losing  a  particle  of  her  womanliness, 
she  will  not  stand  upon  it  to  the  exaction  of  drawing-room 
courtesies  from  busy  men  in  business  hours.  In  short, 
her  common  sense  will  pervade  everything  that  she  does. 

The  woman  who  would  succeed  must  also  study  care- 
fully the  public  whom  she  addresses.  It  is  not  worth 
while  to  send  a  thoughtful  and  philosophical  essay  to  a 
society  paper,  nor  a  child's  jingle  to  a  stately  review. 
Women  sometimes  make  the  mistake  of  trying  to  write  on 
a  subject  of  which  they  know  nothing.  Thus,  to  a 
woman  who  has  made  science  of  music  her  study  during 
many  painstaking  years  there  came  one  day  a  flighty  tele- 
gram from  a  young  woman  to  this  effect :  "  Please  wire  me 
all  you  know  about  Norse  music.  I  have  to  write  an 
article  on  it  for  such  a  paper  by  such  a  date."  Manifestly 
this  was  not  the  way  to  undertake  such  an  exploit,  and 
there  was  a  singular  dulness  of  vision  and  lack  of  con- 
science in  the  woman  who  could  make  such  a  request  at 
such  a  source. 

The  woman  who  would  successfully  fill  her  place  in  the 
literary  field  must  rise  above  mere  mercenary  considera- 
tions. The  need  of  money  and  the  desire  to  earn  it  are 
perfectly  legitimate  incentives,  but  no  one  who  does  the 
best  work  ever  does  it  for  money  merely.  It  is  everlast- 
ingly true  that  "  man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone." 

MARGARET  E.  SANGSTER 


24  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


THE  SECRETS  OF  PENCRAFT. 

Little    Things    Which    Writers   Really    Ought    to   Know. — 

Advice  to  Women  Who  Aspire  to  Sell  Manuscript 

to  Busy  Editors, 

THREE  things  are  essential  to  success  in  pencraft — to 
have  something  to  say  ;  to  know  how  to  say  it ;  most 
important  of  all,  to  know  how  and  where  to  market  it  after 
it  is  said.  Nature,  education  and  environment  have  much 
to  do  with  the  ability  to  succeed  in  the  first  two.  The 
vital  third  rests  almost  wholly  with  the  intending  penwo- 
man.  The  best,  the  only  way,  to  find  out  where  and  how 
to  sell  manuscripts  is  to  read  current  periodical  literature, 
not  at  haphazard,  with  languid  lack  of  criticism,  but 
alertly,  comprehendingly,  looking  all  the  while  as  to  the 
why  and  wherefore  of  everything  that  goes  in. 

Every  publication  worth  considering  has  its  own  definite 
aim  and  atmosphere.  Aims  and  atmosphere,  of  course, 
have  points  of  contact.  What  you  need  to  look  out  for  is 
not  their  likenesses,  but  their  differences.  Once  upon  a 
time  I  submitted  a  story  to  a  veteran  publisher  who  has 
found  millions  in  the  business.  In  returning  it  he  said  : 

"  I  like  your  story  immensely  ;  I  should  print  it  but  for 
a  single  line  in  it.  You  speak  of  the  heroine  as  '  of  the 
county  aristocracy/  My  public  would  not  bear  that — 
would  not  bear,  in  fact,  any  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
there  are  such  things  as  social  class  distinctions.  If  I 
printed  your  story  it  would  call  down  on  me  an  avalanche 
of  angry  letters,  and  maybe  cost  me  some  lifelong  sub- 
scribers." 

The  incident  is  trivial,  but  worth  telling,  as  showing 
how  many  things  go  toward  determining  acceptance  or 
rejection. 


AUTHORSHIP.  25 

Another  benefit  of  thus  reading  with  a  purpose  is  the 
training  it  may  be  made  to  afford  in  the  use  of  words. 
Never  copy  slavishly  anybody's  style — not  Stevenson's, 
not  even  Shakespeare's  if  that  were  possible — but  when- 
ever a  happy  collocation  of  words  arrests  attention  make 
mental  note  of  it,  even  though  the  words  may  seem 
unlikely  to  serve  any  immediate  turn.  Thus  you  secure 
a  vocabulary.  Vocabularies  are  exceedingly  handy  things 
to  have  when  your  pen  must  strike  a  racing  gait. 

A  greater  benefit  derived  from  them  is  that  you  may 
escape  the  thrall  of  the  hackneyed-conventional.  Unusual 
words  flung  with  malice  aforethought  at  an  inoffending 
subject  are  in  the  worst  possible  taste,  but  to  use  usual 
words  unusually  is  among  the  master  secrets  of  style.  It 
gives  a  touch  of  distinction  to  the  simplest  subject. 

Yet  another  advantage  to  be  gained  by  studying  the 
magazines  and  newspapers  is  an  accurate  comprehension 
of  the  literary  mode  of  the  moment.  Literature  is  like 
love  and  war — eternal  ;  nevertheless  it  is  subject  to 
fashions.  If  you  doubt  it,  compare  the  books,  the  maga- 
zine stories,  even  the  news  items  of  ten  years  back,  with 
those  of  to-day.  A  case  in  point  is  the  dialect  story, 
more  particularly  negro  dialect.  The  epoch  of  "  Mars 
Chan,"  "Meh  Leddy,"  "The  Grandissimes,"  etc.,  has 
seen  its  apogee.  Nowadays  even  Mr.  Page  and  Mr. 
Cable  have  taken  to  other  manners  of  writing.  While  a 
story  with  a  good  deal  of  story  in  it — the  only  kind,  to  my 
mind,  in  the  least  worth  writing — has  always  a  certain 
vitality,  it  is  more  than  a  question  whether  even  such 
tales  as  Saxe  Holm's,  if  they  came  out  to-day,  the  same 
in  line  and  letter,  would  get  more  than  casual  attention. 

The  actual  work  of  making  manuscripts  needs  but  a 
paragraph  to  describe  it  ;  that  is,  as  to  its  material  side. 
One  point  worth  consideration  is  always  to  use  good 


26  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

paper,  and  plenty  of  it.  That  is  to  say,  do  not  cramp 
your  sentences  nor  place  your  lines  too  close. 

Typewriting  requires  the  double  space.  Well  done,  it 
adds  to  a  manuscript's  chances  ;  ill  done,  it  had  better 
not  be  done  at  all.  For  a  crabbed  or  illegible  long  hand, 
the  reader  may  make  the  excuse  that  it  was  the  writer's 
best.  With  a  machine,  poor  copy  has  but  one  single 
reason  for  its  existence — slovenly  carelessness.  Teach 
yourself  to  think  at  the  machine — it  is  ridiculously  easy. 
Teach  yourself  also  to  be  a  good  typewriter — you  can 
soon  make  perfect  copy,  easily  and  rapidly,  if  only  you 
will  set  yourself  sedulously  in  the  way  of  doing  it. 

But  typewriting  is  not  essential.  Personally  I  would 
rather  read  legible  penwriting  than  the  clearest  type. 
No  matter  how  you  write,  do  not  send  off  scratched  or 
blotted  or  blotched  sheets.  If  you  spoil  a  sentence,  a 
paragraph,  hopelessly,  take  a  fair  new  sheet. 

For  mailing  use  small  sheets  ;  about  four  inches  by 
eight  are  best.  Send  them  flat.  Crease  the  ordinary 
typewriter  paper  once,  crosswise  the  middle.  For  both 
use  big  envelopes,  preferably  smooth  manilla  ones,  which 
are  strong,  neat-looking  and  cheap. 

Whether  or  not  you  shall  send  with  your  manuscript  a 
letter  to  the  editor  is  one  of  those  matters  of  taste  about 
which  it  is  idle  to  dispute.  But  regarding  letters  of  intro- 
duction, friendly  criticisms  from  eminent  authorities,  and 
so  on,  they  are  worth  to  the  young  writer  exactly  the 
paper  they  are  printed  on.  This  is  a  frozen  fact— every 
manuscript  sent  to  a  .reputable  editor  gets  some  sort  of 
examination.  If  it  carries  its  own  letter  on  its  face,  it  is 
likely  to  be  read  through — often  more  than  once. 

Then  there  is  but  one  thing  to  be  considered — whether 
or  not  it  suits  the  needs  of  that  particular  publication. 
If  it  does,  the  editor  jumps  at  it.  If  it  does  not,  he  sends 


AUTHORSHIP.  27 

it  back,  even  though  his  most  familiar  friend  had  com- 
mended it  to  him.  In  fact,  judging  solely  by  the  intrica- 
cies of  our  human  nature,  the  letter  of  introduction  may 
possibly  work  harm.  The  most  of  us  resent  an  attempt 
to  make  up  our  minds  for  us,  and  richly  enjoy  having  our 
own  sweet  way  and  will. 

Whether  it  is  better  to  carry  manuscript  or  send  it, 
always  depends.  Sometimes  two  minutes  of  talk  go  a 
long  way  in  your  favour.  Two  hours  of  talk  will  kill  the 
chances  of  a  Kipling.  Remember,  the  editor  has  other 
business  than  seeing  you,  even  though  you  may  be  among 
the  most  charming  works  of  nature — and  art.  Commonly 
he  is  paid  a  salary  (commonly  also  he  bears  a  conscience) 
and  wishes  to  earn  it.  If  you  can  trust  yourself  to  be 
brief,  business-like,  yet  thoroughly  womanly,  you  may 
beard  the  lions  editorial— rusually  most  gentle  lions — in 
their  dens,  to  the  betterment  of  your  chances.  But  if 
you  have  a  hobby,  a  grievance  or  a  mission,  in  pity  for- 
bear ! 

Never,  never,  never — I  should  like  to  write  with  the 
emphasis  of  double  leads — try  to  make  capital  of  any  dis- 
advantage you  may  suffer.  Neither  your  poverty  nor 
losses  nor  your  womanhood  can  be  laid  at  the  reading 
public's  door,  hence  the  editor,  the  reading  public's  mid- 
dleman, has  no  sort  of  concern  with  them. 

Another  thing,  one  that  applies  most  to  working 
journalists,  never  permit  yourself  to  forget  that  what  is 
unbecoming  a  gentlewoman  is  doubly  unbecoming  a 
newspaper  woman.  That  is  to  say,  never  let  yourself  do 
anything  simply  because  a  woman's  doing  it  would  make 
the  world  stare. 

Dr.  Johnson  said  of  a  woman's  book  that  it  was  like  a 
dog's  walking  on  two  legs — the  wonder  was  not  that  it 
was  ill  done,  but  that  it  was  done  at  all.  The  moral  is, 


28  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

take  any  assignment  that  you  can  fill  acceptably,  regard- 
less of  sex,  but  take  none  that  might  be  given  you  simply 
because  there  would  be  a  sensational  fillip  in  seeing  how 
a  woman  would  discharge  it. 

The  best  English,  and  plenty  of  it,  is  hardly  good 
enough  for  real  newspaper  work.  Try  always  to  say 
what  you  have  to  say  freshly,  picturesquely,  in  the  fewest 
possible  words,  with  the  strictest  possible  regard  for 
accuracy.  Never  "  fake  "  anything.  If  you  cannot  find  a 
story,  have  the  courage  to  say  so.  If  you  find  a  nasty 
story,  have  the  supreme  courage  to  leave  it  untold.  Let 
it  be  understood  that  you  are  dependable,  accurate  and 
given  to  noting  the  small  things  which  give  verisimilitude. 
If  Fate  is  unkind  and  sends  you  interviewing,  pray  for 
double  stocks  of  tact  and  discretion.  It  is  often  unsafe 
to  put  into  people's  mouths  the  things  they  say,  and  ex- 
tremely safe  to  put  there  the  things  they  would  like  to 
have  said,  only  they  did  not  know  them  to  say. 

MARTHA  McCuLLOCH  WILLIAMS. 


GOOD  WITS,  PEN  AND  PAPER. 

Mary  E.  Wilkins  on  the  Essentials  for  Authorship. — Excel- 
lent Matter  Will  Not  Be  Rejected  Successfully  by  Every 
Editor. — Originality. 

OF  course,  it  is  understood  that  no  girl  can  become  a 
successful  writer  of  short  stories  or  books  unless  she  has 
a  certain  amount  of  natural  ability  in  that  direction. 
Otherwise  all  the  advice  in  the  world  must  be  of  no  avail. 
There  must  be  a  spark,  however  small,  of  genuine  talent 
in  order  to  have  a  flame. 


AUTHORSHIP.  29 

When  this  talent  does  exist  the  simplest  road  to  success 
is  the  best.  There  is  really  little  to  do  except  to  provide 
one's  self  with  good  pens,  good  ink  and  paper,  a  liberal 
supply  of  postage  stamps  and  a  more  liberal  supply  of 
patience,  sharpen  one's  eyes  and  ears  to  see  and  hear 
everything  in  the  whole  creation  lijtely  to  be  of  the 
slightest  assistance,  and  set  to  work.  Then,  never  cease 
work  for  the  pure  sake  of  the  work,  and  never  write  solely 
for  the  dollars  and  fame,  while  one  lives. 

A  young  writer  should  follow  the  safe  course  of  writing 
only  about  those  subjects  which  she  knows  thoroughly, 
and  concerning  which  she  trusts  her  own  convictions. 
Above  all,  she  should  write  in  her  own  way,  with  no 
dependence  upon  the  work  of  another  for  aid  or  sugges- 
tion. She  should  make  her  own  patterns  and  found  her 
own  school. 

When  it  comes  to  placing  stories,  books,  etc.,  there  is 
nothing  to  do  but  to  send  them  to  editors  and  publishers, 
with  the  firm  belief  that  no  article  really  worthy  of  accept- 
ance will  be  rejected  by  them  all.  Such  a  result  is  very 
unlikely,  and  it  is  generally  safe  to  conclude  that  there  is 
some  defect,  if  not  of  art,  of  adaptability,  in  the  article. 

The  influence  of  others  in  placing  work  is  very  much 
overrated.  I  doubt  if  many  successful  authors  can  attrib- 
ute their  success  to  anything  but  their  own  unaided 
efforts,  and  if  many  can  trace  the  acceptance  of  first 
articles  to  words  or  letters  of  recommendation  to  editors 
from  influential  friends. 

The  keynote  of  the  whole  is,  as  in  every  undertaking  in 
this  world,  faithful,  hopeful  and  independent  work. 

MARY  E.  WILKINS. 


30  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

JOURNALISM  HAS  CHARMS. 

Mrs.  Alden  Writes  on  News-Getting  and  News-Handling. — 

Probable  Earnings,  Qualifications  for  the  Work,  and 

Methods  Which  Lead  to  Success  and  Advancement. 

JOURNALISM  proper,  as  a  field  for  the  activities  of  wo- 
men, offers  many  rewards  objective  and  subjective.  At 
the  beginning,  let  me  explain  what  I  mean  by  journalism 
proper.  It  is  not  the  mere  writing  of  pieces  for  the 
weekly,  monthly  or  daily  newspaper,  or  the  mere  drawing 
of  a  salary  in  a  position  held  by  strictly  extrinsic  pull  or 
influence.  It  is  the  conscientious,  continuous  earning  of  a 
living,  as  reporter  or  editor,  in  the  collection  or  handling  of 
daily  news.  The  objective  rewards,  summarized,  mean 
an  honest,  reasonably  liberal  maintenance.  The  sub- 
jective rewards,  summarized,  mean  a  perpetual  broaden- 
ing of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  horizon  of  the  worker. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  woman  was  hardly  known  in 
daily  journalism.  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Lippincott  (Grace 
Greenwood)  had  contributed  political  and  sociological 
essays  to  several  newspapers  ;  so  had  Mrs.  J.  C.  Croly 
(Jennie  June).  James  G.  Elaine's  sister-in-law,  Mi^s 
Abigail  Dodge  (Gail  Hamilton),  was  also  a  valued  though 
desultory  contributor.  Earlier  than  this,  Victoria  C. 
Woodhull  had  offered  to  The  Herald  her  series  of 
articles  on  "  The  Tendencies  of  Government,"  and  these 
were  printed  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1870,  but  were 
hardly  treated  seriously  by  the  elder  Mr.  Bennett. 

One  of  the  first  women  to  make  a  name  for  herself  as  a 
regular  salaried  employe  of  a  New  York  newspaper,  in  a 
news-getting  capacity,  was  Miss  Midy  Morgan,  the  live- 
stock reporter  of  The  Times.  She  came  from  a  good 
Irish  family,  was  thoroughly  educated,  had  travelled  all 


AUTHORSHIP.  31 

over  the  world,  and  was  one  of  the  best  judges  of  horse- 
flesh in  the  United  States.  To  some  of  her  closest 
friends  she  used  to  show  a  gold  medal  presented  to  her 
by  Victor  Emanuel,  King  of  Italy,  who  had  commis- 
sioned her  to  buy  a  hundred  horses  for  the  royal  stables, 
and  had  thought  her  good  judgment  and  economy 
worthy  of  special  recognition.  Miss  Morgan's  work  for 
The  Times  suited  her,  but  would  not  have  been  con- 
genial to  most  women,  as  it  involved  a  daily  visit  to  the 
great  stockyards  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  metropolis. 
No  man  could  have  been  more  conscientious  about 
doing  this  work  well  and  equally  well  in  all  sorts  of 
weather.  She  was  also  a  contributor  to  The  Tribune. 

Miss  Nellie  Hutchinson  was  for  many  years  in  charge 
of  a  "  Personal  and  Humourous  "  column  on  the  editorial 
page  of  The  Tribune,  which  was  perhaps  more  widely 
quoted  than  any  column  of  its  sort  in  the  United  States. 
She  was  also  one  of  the  most  trusted  literary  and  dra- 
matic critics  in  America.  Miss  Hutchinson  (now  Mrs. 
Cortissoz)  is  yet  a  member  of  The  Tribune  editorial 
force. 

In  later  years,  largely  because  of  the  success  of  a  few 
womanly  and  able  attaches  of  large  newspapers,  women 
have  entered  the  journalistic  field  in  increasing  numbers. 
Their  presence  there  has  lost  its  novelty,  and  no  longer 
calls  for  comment. 

Salaries  differ  with  different  localities,  the  character  of 
the  newspaper  concerned,  and  the  personality  of  the 
individual  worker,  because  personality  is  everything  in 
the  getting  of  news  and  the  writing  of  criticisms.  Sala- 
ries range  from  $15  a  week  to  $80.  There  may  be  one 
or  two  women  in  legitimate  journalism  who  are  making 
more  than  the  latter  figure.  Until  experience  has  done 
its  perfect  work  no  young  woman  can  expect  to  earn 


32  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

more  than  the  average  salary  of  a  reporter,  say  $15  or  $25 
a  week.  This  is,  in  New  York  City,  only  a  little  less  than 
men  are  receiving  for  the  same  work.  In  some  Western 
cities,  I  understand,  the  rates  are  slightly  higher.  1 
know  of  one  woman  in  Denver,  Col.,  who  receives  $30  a 
week  for  reporting. 

The  presentation  of  facts  as  to  what  women  are  doing 
in  their  various  organizations,  church,  charitable  and 
literary,  in  which  The  Tribune  has  led  the  way,  is 
rapidly  becoming  an  essential  feature  of  American  jour- 
nalism, and  in  this  field  women  have  the  advantage. 
They  can  reach  the  sources  of  news  more  easily  than 
men,  and  are,  indeed,  less  likely  to  be  hoodwinked  by 
those  who  seek  personal  advertisement,  who  are  often  at 
the  front,  even  in  worthy  organizations.  In  other  words, 
it  takes  a  woman  to  catch  a  woman,  and  the  newspapers 
are  realising  that  fact  more  and  more  every  day, 

Literary  and  art  criticism,  so  essential  to  any  great 
modern  newspaper,  is  open  to  women  equally  with  men. 
The  beginner  may  always  hope  to  succeed  if  she  can 
develop  sufficient  culture,  acuteness  and  skill  in  writing. 

As  for  advancement  in  her  calling,  therefore,  the  reporter 
need  not  feel  that  she  is  hopeless  ;  but  if  she  will  take  my 
advice,  she  will  temper  her  ambition  with  a  conscious- 
ness that  a  newspaper  demands  no  work  that  is  higher  or 
more  dignified  than  the  collection  of  news.  It  is  certain 
that  all  the  human  sympathy,  all  the  dramatic  sense,  and 
all  the  logic  of  the  brightest-  graduate  of  Wellesley, 
Smith  or  Vassar  will  be  required  to  grasp  the 'essence  of 
a  news  story,  perceive  the  facts  properly,  and  express  the 
whole  in  English  as  pure  and  understandable  as  that  of 
the  King  James  version  of  the  New  Testament. 

Let  me  warn  the  aspirant  against  philosophy  and  fine 
writing.  No  matter  how  clever  a  woman  may  be,  there  is 


AUTHORSHIP.  33 

little  chance  that  she  will  be  able  to  rival  Locke,  or 
Bacon,  or  La  Rochefoucauld,  or  Montaigne,  or  Benjamin 
Franklin,  at  first.  If  she  tries  to  deal  with  generalities 
and  write  glittering  introductions,  her  copy  will  be  cut  to 
pieces  unmercifully,  because  her  remarks  are  likely  to  be 
either  all  wrong  or  all  stale.  The  living,  breathing  world 
is  intolerant  of  upstarts  and  imitators.  The  living, 
breathing  story  of  what  has  happened  is  demanded  from 
her  pen.  That  is  the  news.  That  is  the  new  thing.  As 
for  style,  the  shortest  words,  the  shortest  sentences,  the 
clearest  forms  of  expression  are  the  best.  Addison  is 
obsolete,  and  Kipling  is  the  best  model,  if  a  model  the 
woman  journalist  must  have.  Frankly  speaking,  I  would 
prefer  to  try  a  girl  who  has  no  model  ;  she  is  far  more 
likely  to  render  her  writing  intelligible  within  a  brief 
period  of  training. 

The  country  girl  should  not  come  to  New  York  with 
the  intention  of  making  a  living  in  journalism,  without 
enough  money  to  make  her  safe  from  privation  for  six 
months.  As  for  other  qualifications,  I  shall  try  to 
enumerate  them  as  briefly  as  possible  : 

First — A  good  common-school  education.  If  the 
aspirant  has  broader  culture  than  such  an  education 
implies,  so  much  the  better.  She  cannot  possibly  know 
too  much.  But  English  grammar  and  spelling  are  indis- 
pensable acquirements  if  tolerable  manuscript  is  to  be 
produced. 

Second — A  legible  hand.  li  a  woman  can  use  a  type- 
writing machine,  there  will  be  many  occasions  when  she 
can  make  her  manuscript  better  by  so  doing ;  but  often 
the  use  of  such  a  machine  will  be  absolutely  impracti- 
cable. 

Third — The  manners  of  a  woman  of  good  society.  I 
do  not  refer  to  Society  with  a  big  "  S."  That  is  another 


34  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

thing.  The  manners  of  the  best  people  in  Oshkosh,  or 
Spring  Valley,  or  Cripple  Creek  are  good  enough.  But 
coarseness  is  unpardonable  in  a  woman  who  is  going  out 
every  day  to  talk  with  womanly  women  in  the  necessary 
collection  of  news. 

Equipped  with  these  qualifications,  freed  from  nervous- 
ness by  the  fact  that  she  is  temporarily  provided  for,  the 
young  woman  will  find  it  worth  her  while  to  study  news- 
papers before  she  goes  into  a  newspaper  office.  She 
should  learn  what  sorts  of  matter  are  printed  every  morn- 
ing and  ask  herself  whether,  in  the  same  fields,  there  is 
not  some  unprinted  story  that  she  knows  or  can  find  out 
about.  If  there  is,  let  her  write  it  up.  With  this  article 
she  may  go  to  any  office,  and  ask  for  the  city  editor  or 
the  editor  of  the  woman's  department.  She  will  equally 
avoid  coquettishness  and  constraint.  She  will  say  :  "  I 
am  Miss  Brown,  of  Stamford.  I  have  come  to  New  York 
to  learn  to  be  a  reporter.  I  want  a  chance  to  learn. 
Please  look  over  this  story  and  see  if  it  is  worth  using, 
and  give  me  an  assignment  to  try  me.  I  am  ready  to  do 
any  work  you  can  put  me  to." 

The  editor  will  say  "  Yes  "  or  "  No."  If  he  says  "  No," 
she  must  try  another  office  in  the  same  way.  She  must 
not  feel  personally  hurt  or  aggrieved  if  work  is  not  im- 
mediately forthcoming.  It  is  not  Miss  Brown,  of  Stam- 
ford, who  has  been  rejectedc  It  is  an  inexperienced  ap- 
plicant for  work.  If  she  persists  in  her  study  of  news- 
papers and  her  attempts  at  news  stories,  she  will  succeed 
sooner  or  later  in  getting  a  trial.  What  then  ? 

She  must  put  her  work  ahead  of  all  social  engagements. 
She  must  be  always  on  hand.  The  bird  which  is  watch- 
ing when  the  worm  crawls  out  into  the  sunlight  is  the 
bird  that  gets  fed.  If  getting  a  story  makes  work  after 
midnight  necessary,  she  must  work  after  midnight  without 


AUTHORSHIP.  35 

murmuring.  She  must  dispense  with  the  idea  that  it  is 
dignified  to  do  one  thing  and  undignified  to  do  another. 
All  are  parts  of  the  same  whole.  She  must  not  give  to 
her  meals  precedence  over  her  work ;  yet  she  must  eat 
with  reasonable  regularity,  if  she  would  preserve  her 
health,  and  without  health  good  work  is  impossible.  She 
must  dress  for  all  weathers.  She  must  always  remember 
that  it  is  her  paper  and  not  herself  that  is  snubbed  when 
any  one  refuses  her  news.  She  must  feel  herself  just  one 
finger  of  a  giant — the  press  of  America.  She  must  get 
rid  of  the  theory  that  a  woman  may  not  safely  go  into  the 
streets  of  a  city  without  an  escort  after  dark.  If  she  be- 
haves herself  she  is  in  no  more  danger  than  is  her  brother. 
She  must  put  truth  above  everything  else,  and  avoid  the 
fallacy  that  imagination  can  be  made  to  take  the  place  of 
industry. 

If  any  young  woman  of  ordinary  sense  will  pay  at- 
tention to  all  these  points,  she  can  make  a  good  living  as 
a  reporter.  She  will  find  that  the  range  of  her  under- 
standing and  her  sympathies  is  being  increased  with  every 
month  of  her  work.  She  will  be  studying,  not  Hawthorne, 
or  Hardy,  or  Howells,  but  the  raw  material  of  the  novel- 
ist. Her  daily  experience  will  be  a  continuous  education 
for  the  field  of  legitimate  fiction.  Humour  and  pathos  will 
be  entering  into  her  daily  life  in  a  way  that  would  be 
otherwise  impossible.  If  she  has  talent  or  genius  or 
executive  ability  her  future  is  secure.  Meanwhile  her 
daily  bread  is  provided  for.  What  more  could  be  asked 
for  any  vocation  in  life  ? 

CYNTHIA  WESTOVER  ALDEN. 


36  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

TO  WOULD-BE  AUTHORS. 

Don't  be  Discouraged. — Editors  Have  No  Grudge  Against 
the  Writers. 

THE  girl  who  is  easily  discouraged  stands  a  poor  chance 
of  winning  in  any  calling  or  profession,  a-nd  this  is  ex- 
ceptionally true  of  literary  work.  Because  a  manuscript 
is  rejected  by  one  publication  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is 
not  exactly  fitted  to  the  needs  of  some  other  one.  There- 
fore, when  a  too  bulky  envelope  makes  its  appearance  in 
your  morning  mail,  instead  of  the  thin  but  check-bearing 
one  you  were  hoping  for,  don't  cast  it  into  the  fire,  Miss 
Literary,  nor  yet  sit  down  and  weep  over  the  rejection. 
If  you  must  weep,  keep  up  a  brave  heart  withal,  and  post 
your  rejected  story  straightway  to  some  other  editor,  and 
then,  without  waiting  to  learn  its  fate,  sit  down  to  write 
something  better. 

Another  thing:  It  is  only  waste  of  time  and  postage 
stamps  to  cast  your  manuscript  upon  the  troubled  waters 
of  literature  without  studying  carefully  the  chart  which 
shows  the  character  of  its  safe  harbours.  An  excellent 
and  well-written  story  that  is  exactly  appropriate  for  one 
publication  will  be  altogether  out  of  place  in  certain 
others.  Find  out  by  thorough  inspection  what  particular 
kind  of  story  a  magazine  usually  inclines  to.  If  your 
story  is  a  simple  love  tale  for  the  delectation  of  senti- 
mental young  women,  don't  send  it  to  a  magazine  with  a 
penchant  for  ghost  stories  and  grewsome  tales  of  ad- 
venture. 

If  it  is  an  essay  on  the  ethics  of  modern  sociology,  do 
not  submit  it  to  the  editor  of  a  fashion  sheet.  Above  all, 
do  not  send  poetry  to  any  of  the  publications  wherein 
rhymes  are  tabooed.  Study  the  character  of  each  pub- 


AUTHORSHIP.  37 

lication  before  you  favor  it  with  the  perusal  of  your  man- 
uscript, and  thus  spare  yourself  many  a  heartache. 

Again,  do  not  overload  your  manuscripts  on  other  wo- 
men who  have  achieved  some  degree  of  success.  They 
still  have  troubles  of  their  own,  and  the  most  successful 
woman  cannot  place  worthless  manuscript  on  the  literary 
market,  if  signed  by  an  unknown  name.  Remember  that 
success  depends  upon  you  alone  ;  if  there  is  merit  in  what 
you  write,  and  you  have  patience  and  perseverance,  edi- 
tors are  going  to  find  it  out  ;  otherwise  nobody  can  help 
you. 

Before  I  became  an  editor  I  believed  with  other  as- 
pirants that  acceptance  or  rejection  was  too  often  a  mat- 
ter of  influence  or  personal  interest.  Now  I  know  that 
an  editor  is  frequently  obliged  to  reject  an  excellent  ar- 
ticle for  the  best  possible  reasons.  First,  the  article  may 
not  be  suited  to  his  publication  ;  second,  it  may  be  ex- 
actly in  line  with  something  he  has  already  used  or  is  just 
going  to  publish  ;  third,  it  may  be  too  long  or  too  short  ; 
fourth,  the  magazine  may  be  already  overstocked  with 
manuscripts  ;  fifth,  the  editor  may  not  be  able  to  pay  for 
it  ;  sixth,  and  so  on,  up  to  sixtieth,  there  may  be  plenty 
of  reasons  why  his  "  with  regrets  "  may  be  sincere. 

Be  not  easily  discouraged.  Do  not  attempt  to  write 
unless  you  have  something  to  say,  and  then  try  to  say  it 
in  a  convincing  and,  if  possible,  an  out-of-the-usual  way. 
Keep  up  a  brave  spirit  and  welcome  rejected  manuscript 
as  the  necessary  discipline  for  moulding  the  successful 
writer.  Send  it  forth  with  a  prayer  and  a  song — not  a 
sigh.  Practise  patience  and  perseverance  with  a  capital 
P,  and  you  will  push  up  to  the  profitable  paths  of  a  pro- 
lific pen. 

HELEN  M.  WINSLOW. 


38  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


PROFITS  OF  AUTHORSHIP. 

FINANCIAL  success  in  literature  cannot  safely  be  pre- 
dicted. Some  of  the  most  clever  writers  have  failed  to 
make  a  living.  Many  mediocrities  have  made  fortunes. 
So  fickle  is  public  favour  that  a  novelist  often  makes  a  hit 
with  her  first  book  and  never  afterward  attracts  much  at- 
tention. Many  writers  of  fiction  have  other  resources  for 
a  livelihood  or  are  in  independent  circumstances.  Some 
are  editors  of  magazines,  like  Mary  Mapes  Dodge  and 
Margaret  E.  Sangster.  Some  do  much  newspaper  work, 
like  Mrs.  M.  E.  W.  Sherwood,  Marion  Harland  and  Mrs. 
Elaine  Goodale-Eastman.  A  great  number  of  women  do, 
nevertheless,  find  in  fiction  an  income  sufficient  to  encour- 
age them  to  make  its  production  a  life  work.  Among 
such  known  in  this  country  and  in  England  are  Mrs. 
Frances  Hodgson  Burnett,  Margaret  Deland,  Harriet 
Prescott  Spofford,  Mrs.  Van  Rensselaer  Cruger,  Mrs. 
Burton  Harrison,  Mrs.  M.  E.  W.  Sherwood,  Amelie  Rives, 
Ruth  McEnery  Stuart,  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin,  Mary  E. 
Wilkins,  Anna  Katharine  Green,  Marietta  Holly,  Amelia 
Barr,  the  late  Maria  Pool,  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps,  Mary 
J.  Holmes,  Mary  Hallock  Foote,  Mrs.  E.  D.  E.  N.  South- 
worth,  Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward,  Marie  Corelli,  Olive 
Schreiner,  Beatrice  Harraden,  Sara  Jeanette  Duncan  and 
Mrs.  Craigie  (John  Oliver  Hobbes). 


DRAMATIC  ART. 

SIXTY  YEARS  ON  THE  STAGE. 

Mrs.  W.  G.  Jones,  an  Actress  Since  Van  Buren  Was  President. 

— Reminiscences  and  Advice  for  Women  Who 

Hope  to  Succeed. 

BECAUSE  it  is  thought  that  my  long  career  as  an  actress 
has  fitted  me  to  give  advice  to  the  aspirant  to  histrionic 
honours,  I  have  been  asked  to  give  my  opinion  as  to  how 
a  young  woman  wishing  to  go  on  the  stage  should  prepare 
herself  for  it. 

It  is  now  sixty  years  since  I  played  my  first  part,  and  I 
have  met  and  known — well,  all  the  members  of  the  profes- 
sion who  have  been  heard  in  this  country  in  my  day. 
Two  generations  is  a  long  time  to  look  back,  and  yet  I 
can  remember  distinctly  my  childish  feelings  when,  -at 
eight  years  of  age,  I  stepped  upon  the  boards  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  child  Rose  in  "  The  Gambler's  Fate."  That 
is  a  play  which,  like  many  good  ones,  has  not  survived  its 
period  of  production. 

'  The  beginner  of  to-day,  with  a  confidence  won  during 
her  training  at  the  dramatic  school,  and  her  general 
knowledge  of  the  world  and  of  events  gained  by  the 
unavoidable  meeting  and  clashing  of  many  personalities 
in  the  busy  city  of  life,  would  feel  that  "  The  Gambler's 
Fate  "  was  an  impossible  piece,  even  to  begin  with.  But 
it  is  not  so  much  that  the  standard  of  excellence  in  the 
drama  is  raised  now  to  a  higher  point,  as  that  the  standard 
is  different. 


WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Thus  in  giving  advice  to  young  people  of  to-day  I  can 
only  say  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  proper  course  to 
take,  but  as  this  course  is  not  one  I  have  taken  I  cannot 
vouch  for  its  entire  excellence. 

In  my  youth  schools  of  acting  were  unheard  of,  nor 
were  they  necessary.  Members  of  the  present-day  dra- 
matic schools,  and  all  the  young  recruits  in  the  profession, 
declare  that  candidates  for  the  stage  ought  to  study  under 
a  definite  curriculum,  just  as  they  would  do  for  any  other 
profession,  but  I  should  like  to  tell  what  was  done  before 
there  were  dramatic  schools  where  instruction  could  be 
had,  and  how  the  actors  and  actresses  in  those  days  pre- 
pared themselves  for  their  calling. 

To  begin  with,  formerly  people  did  not  take  up  the  pro- 
fession so  generally  as  they  do  now.  Those  who  adopted 
it  were,  for  the  most  part,  born  to  it  ;  their  parents  or 
relatives  had  been  actors  or  theatrical  people  for  genera- 
tions before  them.  They  were  thus  in  a  manner  educated 
from  birth  to  the  technicalities  of  the  profession  ;  they 
were  from  babyhood  before  the  footlights  ;  they  imbibed 
the  jargon  of  the  stage,  and  they  had  no  illusions 
about  it  to  overcome.  A  great  deal  of  time  was  therefore 
saved  in  teaching  what  the  student  at  the  dramatic  school 
must  learn  through  precept  rather  than  example  and 
experience  in  every-day  life. 

If,  in  addition  to  this  kind  of  training,  the  girl  had  genu- 
ine talent,  was  possessed  of  a  good  voice  and  a  dramatic 
manner,  she  would  readily  imitate  the  best  she  heard  and 
saw,  and  would  come  into  especial  notice  at  an  early  date. 

Besides  all  this,  the  stock  companies  used  to  carry  on 
an  even  succession  of  plays,  and  keep  their  members  em- 
ployed the  year  round  ;  whereas  now,  unless  a  play  has  a 
phenomenally  long  run,  the  company  composing  the  cast 
is  disbanded  when  the  play  is  taken  off.  So  that  an 


DRAMATIC  ART.  41 

actress's  "  season  "  may  be  months  or  weeks,  according 
to  the  success  of  the  play,  but  she  is  not  employed  on  a 
yearly  salary  unless  she  is  a  member  of  a  stock  company 
which  will  go  "  on  the  road  "  when  the  city  season  is  over. 

True,  salaries  in  a  certain  way  are  better  than  they 
were  in  the  old  days.  The  rate  by  the  week  or  season  is 
higher,  but  the  expenses  attached  to  the  career  are  so 
much  greater  that  the  gain  is  not  commensurate. 

My  first  appearance  was  at  the  old  Walnut  Street  Thea- 
tre in  Philadelphia,  where  my  father  was  for  years  engaged 
in  the  orchestra,  and  where  I  knew  all  the  members  of 
the  company  and  did  not  feel  strange  or  frightened. 
Indeed,  the  old  stock  company  people  were  always  like  a 
great  family,  like  brothers  and  sisters  together,  and  re- 
joiced with  each  other  in  weal  or  mourned  with  each  other 
in  woe.  It  was  the  same  everywhere 

I  was  for  twenty-five  years  the  "  leading  lady  "  at  the 
Bowery  Theatre,  playing  at  both  the  Old  Bowery  and  at 
the  New  Bowery  until  it  was  burned,  and  spent  many 
happy  times  before  the  lights  and  behind  the  scenes  in 
both  houses. 

As  to  the  first  steps  for  a  would-be  actress  to  take,  I 
think  that  in  these  times  she  cannot  do  better,  if  she  has 
had  no  childish  training,  such  as  I  have  spoken  of,  than 
to  attend  a  dramatic  school.  Of  course  she  will  not  do 
even  this  much  unless  she  has  shown  some  decided  taste 
and  aptness  for  acting.  If  she  has  had  really  good  ama- 
teur experience,  she  would  do  better  to  join  at  once  a 
good  stock  company,  for  nothing  is  so  good  as  the  actual 
experience  gained  before  the  public,  where  even  practis- 
ing is  done  as  professionally  as  the  "  business  "  in  hand. 

As  to  how  a  girl  can  get  into  a  stock  company,  there 
are  various  ways.  She  may  know  some  one  in  the  com- 
pany who  will  introduce  her  to  the  manager ;  she  may 


42  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

know  an  outsider  who  will  perform  that  service  for  her, 
or  she  may  have  to  brace  herself  up  to  make  the  applica- 
tion. 

In  that  case  it  will  be  as  in  every  other  business.  The 
manager  will  politely  tell  her  if  he  does  not  need  her  ser- 
vices, or  he  will  give  her  a  trial,  according  as  she  seems 
to  suit  for  whatever  vacancy  he  has.  She  is  certain  not 
to  get  a  prominent  part,  but,  however  small  a  part  is 
assigned  to  her,  she  will,  if  accepted  for  it,  begin  to  earn 
something  at  once — not  much,  but  a  little. 

Thus,  she  will  be  gaining  an  enormous  amount  of  ex- 
perience, not  only  in  the  business  of  her  own  part,  but  in 
observing  how  others  treat  theirs,  and  in  acquiring  a 
wider  knowledge  of  human  nature,  with  a  toleration  for 
differing  characteristics  in  different  people. 

Salaries  are  not  set.  Each  manager  has  his  own  rules, 
and  the  engagement  is  made  for  long  or  short  periods, 
according  to  the  company's  whim. 

Some  of  the  companies  furnish  the  costumes  for  all 
plays  except  modern  ones.  This  is,  of  course,  an  immense 
saving  and  also  relief  to  the  actress.  Naturally  salaries 
are  then  lower.  The  modern,  up-to-date  gowns  may  be 
of  use  off  the  stage,  and  are  not,  therefore,  a  total  loss 
to  a  girl  if  she  does  have  to  buy  them.  Many  a  girl  makes 
her  own  clothes,  especially  while  she  is  playing  minor 
parts.  It  is  possible  to  be  well  dressed  on  a  small  allow- 
ance, if  one  does  not  go  in  for  the  numerous  small  extrava- 
gances. 

All  young  people  are  rather  inclined  to  extravagances, 
to  those  small  vanities  which  eat  up  the  quarters,  and  so 
the  dollars,  and  in  our  profession  this  is  often  marked.  It 
is  necessary  to  dress  well,  to  eat  well,  and  to  have  a  thor- 
oughly comfortable  and  wholesome  place  to  sleep  in,  but 
it  is  not  necessary  to  ride  everywhere  in  cabs,  to  dine  at 


DRAMATIC  ART.  43 

the  most  expensive  restaurants  or  to  have  apartments  in 
the  dearest  hotel  in  town. 

If  actresses  will  do  as  other  business  women  do,  take 
good  care  of  their  health  and  indulge  in  no  dissipation, 
such  as  late  suppers  and  extra  exertion  after  their  regular 
work,  they  will  not  break  down  upder  any  amount  of 
hard  playing.  Then,  if  they  will  demand  no  more  in  the 
way  of  luxury  than  they  have  been  used  to  before  they 
began  to  play,  they  will  be  able  to  save  something  from 
even  a  modest  salary. 

To  advance  to  pinnacles  of  fame  requires  genius.  In- 
deed, I  think  even  moderate  success  requires  a  consider- 
able amount  of  magnetism,  and  this  is  not  so  difficult  to 
gain  or  to  impart  if  there  is  real  sympathy  in  the  heart  of 
the  actress  for  human  nature  generally,  and  for  the  kind 
of  nature  she  is  portraying. 

To  gain  this  sympathy  does  not  require  scholarship. 
Some  of  the  best  scholars  make  the  poorest  actors  because 
they  are  cold,  while  a  girl  who  knows  little  outside  of  her 
role  may  be  able  to  win  her  audience  to  complete  sym- 
pathy with  her.  When,  however,  this  ability  goes  with 
culture  and  with  knowledge,  the  actress  who  has  acquired 
them  all  will  possess  the  secret  of  complete  success. 

Having  won  success,  she  must  be  sure  to  hold  it,  for, 
should  popularity  once  begin  to  decrease,  it  is  difficult  to 
again  revive  it.  To  keep  it,  then,  it  must  have  been  pro- 
duced by  real  merit,  and  this  merit  need  not  be  based 
upon  excess  of  genius,  but  it  must  be  based  upon  truth. 
However  small  the  part,  it  must  be  played  so  truly  as  to 
carry  conviction  of  the  actress  feeling  herself  to  be  ex- 
actly what  she  appears  for  the  moment.  I  hold  that 
truth  and  sympathy  can  accomplish  nearly  everything. 

MRS.  W.  G.  JONES. 


44  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


THESPIS  IS  A  HARD  MASTER. 

Training  of  an  Actress. — Physical  Culture  First — Then  Voice, 
Elocution,  Grace  in  Action  and  Bearing. 

TRULY  of  all  arts  the  dramatic  is  the  least  understood. 
It  is  remarkable  how  many  young  people  conceive  the 
idea  of  going  upon  the  stage,  with  apparently  no  concep- 
tion of  the  fact  that  acting  is  a  great  art,  which  must  be 
learned  like  any  other  art.  With  a  little  dramatic  talent, 
they  think,  "  Only  give  me  a  chance  to  get  on  the  stage 
and  I  will  show  you  what  I  can  do,"  not  realising  that 
those  who  have  reached  a  height  in  their  profession  have 
done  so  only  through  years  of  training,  study,  struggle 
and  hard  work. 

To  realise  how  great  is  this  particular  art,  one  has  only 
to  think  how  many  so-called  actors  and  actresses  are 
scattered  over  the  world  and  how  few  among  them  have 
reached  distinction.  One  cannot  name  twenty-five  real 
artists  alive  to-day  without  hesitating  some  time  to  con- 
sider who  they  may  be,  and  those  who  are  famous  through- 
out the  English-speaking  world  can  easily  be  summed  up 
upon  the  fingers  of  one  hand. 

When  our  oldest  actors  learned  their  art  every  theatre 
had  its  own  stock  company  ;  stars  travelled  alone,  and 
were  supported  by  these  companies,  and  plays  seldom,  if 
ever,  ran  consecutively  longer  than  a  week,  and  often 
were  changed  nightly.  This  afforded  the  dramatic  aspi- 
rant the  most  excellent  training-school  he  or  she  could 
have  :  but  in  the  present  day  of  travelling  organizations 
and  plays  of  long  runs  the  novice  has  little  opportunity  of 
learning  his  art.  Consequently  the  dramatic  school  has 
become  a  necessity. 

But  too  many  young  people  do  not  consider   the    dra- 


DRAMATIC  ART.  45 

matic  school  seriously  ;  they  do  not  see  in  it  an  educational 
institution  to  prepare  them  for  their  profession,  but  merely 
an  open  doorway  to  place  them  upon  the  stage. 

Almost  the  first  question  asked  is  :  "  Do  you  guarantee 
a  position  at  the  end  of  the  course  ?  "  not  "  What  is  your 
system  of  training,  and  after  a  thorough  course  of  study 
what  do  you  think  will  be  my  chance  of  success  ?  " 

Does  the  young  man  entering  the  medical  or  law  school 
ask  :  "  Do  you  guarantee  me  a  practice  when  I  finish  my 
course  ? "  Assuredly  not.  He  knows  he  must  learn  his 
profession  before  he  can  practise  it.  So,  too,  with  the 
different  arts  ;  the  painter,  the  sculptor,  the  singer,  the 
musician,  and  even  the  writer,  no  matter  how  great  the 
talent,  must  all  learn  the  technique  of  their  art  before 
they  become  artists. 

They  enter  the  institutions  teaching  their  particular 
arts  to  study,  and  not  for  a  supposed  position  they  will 
furnish  them  at  the  end  of  the  term. 

Art  in  acting  will  not  grow  until  people  thoroughly 
comprehend  that  it  is  an  art,  and  that  in  choosing  the 
stage  as  a  profession  their  highest  aim  should  be  to 
thoroughly  fit  themselves  by  hard  work  and  study  for 
their  chosen  career  ;  under  these  conditions  the  rest  will 
follow. 

Nb  dramatic  school  in  the  country  can  honestly  prom- 
ise an  engagement  to  a  single  individual  at  the  end  of  a 
prescribed  course  ;  it  can  only  lend  its  influence  to  place 
the  student  in  touch  with  the  manager,  and  upon  the 
favour  of  the  manager  and  the  ability  of  the  student  the 
engagement  depends. 

Managers  are  always  on  the  lookout  for  the  best  talent, 
and  the  best  talent  is  dependent  upon  a  thorough  tech- 
nique. As  Hamilton  Wright  Mabie  truly  tells  us,  "  Behind 
every  bit  of  genuine  art  there  lies  a  training  always 


46  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

arduous,  sometimes  vigourous  to  the  point  of  pain,"  and 
also,  in  the  words  of  Alfred  de  Musset,  "  It  takes  a  great 
deal  of  life  to  make  a  little  art." 

The  question  is  often  asked,  "  How  long  does  it  take  to 
prepare  one's  self  for  the  stage  ?"  It  is  a  difficult  one  to 
answer;  the  length  of  time  depends  much  upon  the 
individuality,  temperament,  power  of  application  and 
special  talent  of  the  pupil. 

I  should  say  that  the  very  least  time  which  should  be 
considered  even  by  the  most  capable  is  six  months  of 
daily  study  and  instruction  to  furnish  the  student  with 
the  mere  rudimentary  technical  skill,  and  we  would 
advise  not  less  than  two  years,  where  time  and  means  will 
permit,  to  give  a  sufficiently  finished  technique  to  do 
justice  to  important  parts. 

Many  young  people  have  little  idea,  too,  of  the  cost  of 
dramatic  training.  A  regular  course,  covering  a  period 
of  six  months,  in  a  reliable  New  York  school  can  scarcely 
be  undertaken,  including  board  and  ordinary  personal 
expenses,  for  much  less  than  $600. 

Many,  too,  come  from  a  distance  with  the  idea  of 
obtaining  some  light  employment,  partially  to  pay  ex- 
penses. This  is  a  grave  mistake,  as  the  training  in  the 
dramatic  work  is  sufficiently  exacting  to  employ  all  the 
time  of  the  student,  both  in  school  and  out.  The  hours 
in  school  are  devoted  to  receiving  instruction,  and  the 
outside  hours  to  practise,  study  and  the  memorizing  of 
lines. 

The  course  of  dramatic  training  is  not  infrequently  a 
revelation  to  the  frivolous-minded,  and  these  sometimes 
sink  by  the  wayside,  never  to  be  heard  of  again. 

A  little  observation  shows  how  few  persons  possess 
physical  poise.  The  greater  number  collapse  at  the  cen- 
tre when  they  sit  down.  That  men  do  so  is  apparent 


DRAMATIC  ART.  47 

from  the  wrinkles  in  their  vests  between  the  line  of  the 
chest  and  the  bottom  of  the  garment.  Men  and  women 
walk  without  vitality  in  their  bodies  ;  there  is  no  balance 
at  the  centre  of  the  torso  or  easy  vital  action  from  the 
hips. 

A  correct  adjustment  of  the  muscles  means  all  manner 
of  bodily  grace,  and,  we  may  confidently  add,  perpetual 
youth.  Through  the  development  of  the  physical  side  of 
the  nature  the  mentality  becomes  keener  and  more  ready 
to  receive  outward  impressions.  Mind  and  physique  are 
closely  allied,  and  the  training  of  the  body  to  a  perfect 
poise,  with  a  high  chest,  easy  shoulders  and  well-carried 
head,  elastic  footstep  and  expansive  movements,  cannot 
fail  to  arouse  the  inner  being  to  nobler  impulses  and 
higher  aspirations.  Many  persons  who  travel  through 
the  world  with  stiff,  ungainly  bodies  and  awkward  move- 
ments might  be  just  as  easy  and  graceful  as  some  envied 
friend  or  acquaintance  if  they  only  knew  that  grace  is  an 
art  which  may  be  learned. 

With  these  physical  accomplishments  there  is  next  the 
development  and  cultivation  of  the  voice.  As  ungraceful 
movements  result  from  misuse  of  the  muscles,  so  defects 
in  the  voice  are  usually  caused  by  bad  habits  of  utterance. 
With  the  exception  of  the  few  persons  who  are  afflicted 
with  some  radical  malformation  of  the  vocal  organs,  all 
voices  can  be  trained  in  speech  as  well  as  in  music  to 
utter  pure  tone. 

Nasal  and  other  impure  tones  are  generally  acquired  by 
unconscious  imitation,  and  the  fault  can  be  eradicated  by 
judicious  culture.  What  can  be  more  desirable  in  man  or 
woman  than  a  resonant,  mellow  voice  and  beautiful, 
cultured  speech  ?  And  both  voice  and  speech  may  be 
made  beautiful  and  attractive.  Surely,  such  a  result  is 
worth  all  the  pains  that  may  be  required  to  produce  it, 


48  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

since  charm  of  voice  is  one  of  the  most  important  factors 
in  creating  and  maintaining  influence  over  mankind  ! 

Besides  the  training  in  these  two  most  important 
departments,  one  finds  in  the  dramatic  school  an  artis- 
tic atmosphere  in  the  study  of  the  best  literature, 
which  cultivates  the  artistic  spirit.  The  student  dis- 
covers new  interests  and  beauties  in  nature  ;  the  mind 
broadens  and  expands  to  higher  ideals,  and  literature  is 
read  with  a  keener  enjoyment  and  truer  understanding. 

Many  persons  afflicted  with  bashfulness  and  diffidence 
of  manner  find  in  the  constant  class  association  in  a  com- 
mon pursuit,  in  the  daily  recitations  and  rehearsals  of 
parts  in  a  play,  an  invaluable  practice  in  overcoming 
these  annoying  and  oftentimes  detrimental  qualities, 
establishing  in  their  place  a  self-possession  and  dignity  of 
manner  which  no  other  form  of  training  can  so  thoroughly 
give. 

The  world  over,  those  persons  succeed  best  who  are 
physically  and  mentally  controlled — possessed  of  good 
voices,  with  ability  to  express  themselves  in  a  cultured 
manner.  They  are  self-poised  and  able  to  understand 
themselves,  consequently  are  better  able  to  understand 
others.  And  herein  lies  one  of  the  secrets  of  success  in 
the  whole  professional,  commercial  and  social  world. 

We  are  fast  beginning  to  learn  that  many  defects  which 
we  have  long  considered  natural  to  our  own  particular 
individuality  are  a  mere  matter  of  habit,  developed 
through  ignorance,  lack  of  care  and  environment,  and 
that  in  these  days  of  physical  and  mental  culture  by  the 
assiduous  development  of  the  desirable  qualities,  one  may 
become  pretty  much  the  individual  he  or  she  most  longs 
to  be. 

Of  late  years  the  dramatic  school  has  been  the  finishing 
school  where  many  a  crude  youth  and  maiden,  and  some 


DRAMATIC  ART.  49 

a  few  years  beyond  "that  stage,  have  by  careful  study  de- 
veloped into  graceful,  polished  men  and  women. 

ELEANOR  GEORGEN 


EARNINGS  ON  THE  STAGE. 

An  Engagement  the  First  Object. — Salary  Comes  Next  in 
Order  of  Time. 

THE  young  woman  who  comes  to  a  large  city  to  go  on 
the  stage  must  bring  with  her  a  large  stock  of  patience 
and  perseverance,  and  money  enough  to  live  on  for 
several  months  at  least. 

It  is  presumed  that  she  brings  youth,  some  beauty — 
the  more  the  better — and  talent,  of  course. 

The  best  thing  she  can  do  to  start  with  is  to  make 
friends  in  the  profession.  If  she  has  letters  of  introduc- 
tion she  will  find  them  useful.  The  novitiate  should  live 
in  a  professional  atmosphere  then,  from  the  start,  where 
opportunities  occur  to  meet  managers  naturally. 

The  first  and  great  effort  is  to  get  onto  the  real  stage 
in  whatever  capacity,  with  a  salary  or  without  it ;  and 
this  is  effected  either  through  a  dramatic  agency  or  by 
meeting  the  manager  of  a  theatre  and  impressing  him 
with  the  idea  that  the  applicant  is  possible  material  for 
future  prominence  or  greatness. 

As  a  rule,  the  first  engagement  will  bring  the  beginner 
out  as  one  of  a  "  populace,"  or  miscellaneous  group  of 
people.  The  weekly  salary  will  be  from  $5  to  $6,  if  any- 
thing at  all  is  paid.  Costumes  will  be  supplied  by  the 
management. 

Once  on  the  boards,  the  aspirant  needs  merely  to  bide 
her  time,  meanwhile  studying  with  the  diligence  and 


50  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ardour  which  are  the  surest  guarantees  of  success,  and 
waiting  for  the  opportunity  to  drop  into  some  one's  place. 
Vacancies  are  liable  to  occur  at  any  time,  and  every 
actress  has  her  "  understudy." 

A  "  speaking  part  "  wins  a  salary  of  $15  to  $35  a  week, 
and  even  more.  In  no  other  profession  is  one's  market 
value  more  accurately  gauged  or  more  generously  re- 
warded. 

To  sum  up,  it  is  necessary  that  the  woman  who  aspires 
to  a  dramatic  career  must  have  beauty,  or  the  ability  to 
look  beautiful,  and  a  graceful  carriage.  Patience,  plenty 
of  it — it  will  all  be  needed — a  capacity  for  hard  work,  and 
money  enough  to  bridge  over  the  period  of  weary  wait- 
ing, these  are  also  essential.  To  succeed  in  a  marked 
degree  after  being  launched,  that  is  another  matter. 
Talent  alone  determines  that. 

While  the  majority,  both  of  men  and  women,  who  seek 
congenial  employment  upon  the  stage  must  be  content 
with  the  receipt  of  such  salaries  as  their  abilities  will 
bring  them,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  recite  the  fact  that,  to 
those  who  have  some  touch  of  genius,  the  stage  offers 
rewards  quite  as  promising,  financially,  as  any  ether  form 
of  business. 

Merely  to  recite  a  few  of  the  notable  public  examples 
among  men,  reference  may  be  made  to  Edwin  Booth,  who 
retired  from  the  stage  worth  a  full  $1,000,000.  Joseph 
Jefferson  will  be  found  to  be  a  rich  man.  William  H.  Crane, 
William  Gillette,  John  Drew,  Denman  Thompson  and 
other  well-known  figures  in  theatrical  life  have  gained 
competence,  and  a  few  of  them  independence,  by  their 
gracious  services  in  the  drama.  What  has  been  done  by 
a  few  can  be  done  by  others,  both  men  and  women,  with 
equal  abilities  and  determination. 

Among  the  women  who  have  made  fortunes  on  the 


DRAMATIC  ART.  51 

stage,  Lotta,  Mrs.  Barney  Williams,  Mrs.  Ronderbush 
(Agnes  Ethel),  Sarah  Bernhardt,  Ellen  Terry  and  our 
own  Mary  Anderson  are  conspicuous.  Emma  Abbott 
left  a  large  estate. 

MRS.  A.  M.  PALMER 


PROFESSIONAL  READING. 

College  Graduates  Should  Not  Neglect  This  Occupation. 

"  IN  seeking  an  outlet  for  individuality,  with  bread- 
winning  intent,  let  not  the  girl  rich  in  youth  and  the 
wisdom  of  schools  fail  to  consider  well  that  much  misun- 
derstood, much-abused  profession  comprehensively  cov- 
ered by  the  term  reader,"  says  Mrs.  Sarah  Cowell  Le 
Moyne. 

"  It  may  not  pay  in  dollars  and  cents  for  the  eternal 
vigilance  which  perfection  in  the  art  exacts,  but,  unlike 
most  professions  that  bring  a  woman  before  the  public  in 
the  role  of  entertainer,  it  does  not  wither  with  age.  All 
else  being  equal,  the  public  does  not  demand  eternal 
youth  in  a  reader.  I  expect  to  '  read  '  when  I  am  ninety, 
and  expect  the  public  to  say,  *  How  well  the  old  lady  does 
it ' !  " 

"  Knowledge  of  general  literature,  appreciation  of 
poetry,  voice  and  personal  appearance,  are  the  essential 
working  material.  With  this  as  a  foundation,  let  her  study 
pronunciation,  articulation,  breathing  and  control  of  the 
body,  until  there  is  no  right,  no  left,  but  a  perfect  whole, 
and  all  gesture  is  unconscious.  The  public  has  no  patience 
with  the  reader  who  does  not  speak  pure  English. 

"  One  of  the  great  defects  in  American  education  is  the 
utter  indifference  as  to  how  children  speak,  little  atten- 
tion being  paid  to  their  bodies,  the  uses  of  their  lungs  or 
their  walk. 


52  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

"  The  college  girl  who  comes  to  a  large  city  with  the 
intention  of  becoming  a  public  reader  has,  of  course,  in 
her  college  training,  studied  pronunciation  and  articula- 
tion, and  has,  I  assume,  paid  some  attention  to  physical 
culture.  She  has  probably  found  out  what  she  thinks  she 
can  do  best.  She  wants  now  a  public  trial.  Friends 
flatter,  or  they  do  not  know.  The  public,  that  pays  its 
money,  tells  the  truth.  Critics  come  to  the  public  read- 
ing, and  in  all  probability  the  young  reader  will  not  have 
a  leg  to  stand  on  the  next  morning,  when  she  reads  the 
criticisms  of  her  work.  It  is  a  hard  dose  to  swallow,  but 
if  she  is  made  of  the  right  material  she  will  be  open  to 
criticism  and  ready  to  accept  gratefully  that  which  is  just 
and  well  meant. 

"  Having  gained  the  verdict  of  an  impartial  public,  let 
her  then  put  herself  under  the  training  of  the  best  master 
or  mistress  ;  the  best  is  always  the  cheapest.  In  time  she 
may  give  a  second  public  reading.  The  criticisms  may  be 
less  severe,  but  still  there  is  much  to  be  mastered.  If  she 
is  wise  she  will  profit  by  every  criticism  made,  and  study 
and  observe  until  her  art  is  so  simple,  so  natural,  that  it 
is  a  return  to  nature. 

"  The  drawing-room  has  opened  up  in  late  years  a  new 
field  for  the  professional  reader.  Engagements  are  usually 
secured  through  social  patronage,  in  the  guise  of  sub- 
scription classes." 


MISS  IDA  BENFEY. 

"  The  American    Story-Teller" — Dramatic  Readings  from 
Prominent  Authors  and  from  the  Book  of  Job. 

WHEN  a  woman  voluntarily  turns  from  an  environment 
where  she  is  an  acknowledged  mistress  of  her  art  to  seek, 


DRAMATIC  ART.  53 

unheralded  and  unknown,  higher  development  in  the  com 
petition  inseparable  from  a  great  metropolis,  it  is  safe  to 
assert  that  the  woman  and  her  art  are  of  uncommon  order. 
It  is  the  story  of  Miss  Ida  Benfey,  "  the  American  story- 
teller." Before  she  had  quit  her  teens  her  natural  gifts 
were  recognised  by  every  institution  of  learning  in  San 
Jose,  whither  she  was  taken  in  early  childhood  from  her 
native  Michigan.  Miss  Benfey  is  college  bred.  Her 
struggle  to  secure  a  degree  at  the  University  of  California, 
while  she  supported  at  the  same  time  not  only  herself 
but  dependents,  is  an  epic  to  stimulate  and  sustain  the 
faint-hearted.  Wiseacres  shook  their  heads  the  day  this 
plucky  girl  turned  from  assured  livelihood  in  the  West 
to  try  her  fortune  in  an  undiscovered  country.  But  hers 
was  the  aspiration  of  the  true  artist.  She  must  test  her 
metal  in  the  hottest  forge.  To  this  end  she  came  to 
New  York  about  ten  years  ago. 

"  The  public  need  not  know,"  said  one  of  her  masters, 
Dion  Boucicault,  "that  you  brought  into  my  school  a 
ready-made  artist,  and  we  could  add  little  to  your  sum  of 
sweet  qualities."  By  untiring  study  and  faithful  adhe- 
rence to  high  ideals  Miss  Benfey  has  built  solidly. 

To  the  humblest  effort  she  brings  the  breadth  and 
depth  of  wide  observation  and  ripened  scholarship.  So 
simple,  so  genuine,  is  her  art  that  it  is  a  return  to  nature. 
Miss  Benfey  gives  the  story  of  great  novels  in  one  eve- 
ning. Few  artists  surpass  her  in  this  field,  which  she 
originated.  Her  repertory  includes  "  Les  Miserables," 
"  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities,"  "  Christmas  Carol,"  "  Adam 
Bede  "  and  "  The  Mill  on  the  Floss."  The  readings  are 
prepared  with  the  idea  of  giving  the  same  impression  to 
the  audience  that  the  book  itself  gives.  This  result  is  at- 
tained not  by  selected  scenes,  but  in  the  finding  of  the 
motif  of  the  work,  and  using  that  as  the  keynote  to  the 


54  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

whole.     She  calls  this  unique  treatment  "  Dramatization 
for  Reading." 

In  the  drawing-room  and  on  the  stage,  at  colleges,  at 
Chautauquas  and  on  the  lecture  platform  her  art  is  equally 
effective.  Miss  Benfey  has  done  much  to  make  American 
stories  popular  in  London,  where  she  has  given  readings 
at  Stafford  House  and  Grosvenor  House,  her  audiences 
including  the  Princess  Christian,  the  Duchess  of  York 
and  the  Duchess  of  Teck,  who  greatly  enjoyed  her  ren- 
dering of  Mary  E.  Wilkins's  stories.  "  I  esteem  Miss  Ida 
Benfey's  work  very  highly,"  writes  Miss  Wilkins,  "  and 
feel  deeply  grateful  to  her  for  her  marvellously  faithful 
interpretations  of  my  New  England  characters." 

Miss  Benfey's  readings  appeal  to  women  of  education 
and  culture,  and  are'  especially  adapted  to  women's  clubs. 
Aside  from  the  great  novels  and  especial  programmes  of 
Browning  and  Tennyson,  her  children's  matinees,  made 
up  wholly  of  children's  stories  by  well-known  authors, 
are  refreshingly  delightful  to  old  and  young. 

It  has  remained  for  this  singularly  gifted  girl  to  make 
a  dramatic  reading  from  the  Book  of  Job.  This  radical 
departure  will  be  submitted  this  season  to  the  New  York 
public,  whose  approval  she  has  long  since  won.  How  she 
came  to  select  Job  is  best  told  in  her  own  words :  "  The 
inspiration  came,"  said  Miss  Benfey,  "  through  reading 
the  history  of  Elizabeth  Fry,  who  gave  such  effective 
readings  in  Newgate  Prison  early  in  the  century  that  the 
great  lords  and  ladies  of  London  stood  in  the  corridors 
to  hear  her,  entranced  by  the  marvel  of  her  power. 
Later  I  heard  Felix  Adler  state  in  a  lecture  that  the  books 
of  Job  and  Isaiah  were  the  two  greatest  lyric  poems.  I 
be^an  reading  Job  from  a  purely  literary  point  of  view. 
i  became  so  impressed  with  the  beauty,  power  and 


DRAMATIC  ART.  55 

humaneness  of  the  book  that  I  began  studying  it  for  the 
purpose  of  dramatic  reading." 

Miss  Benfey  has  given  more  than  three  years'  study  to 
Job.  Leading  Biblical  scholars  are  interested  in  the  out- 
come of  her  unique  venture.  The  reading  fills  an  entire 
evening.  The  King  James  version -is  used.  "Job,  an 
Epic  of  the  Inner  Life,"  is  the  only  written  tragedy  which 
ends  happily,  and  its  humour  does  not  escape  Miss  Benfey's 
subtle  art. 

When  not  on  the  road  giving  readings  (dates  for  which 
can  be  secured  by  addressing  Messrs.  Gottschalk  and 
Alpuente,  No.  21  East  Twentieth  St.,  New  York  City,  or 
Central  Lyceum  Bureau,  Rochester,  N.  Y.),  Miss  Benfey 
may  be  found  in  her  charming  studio,  No.  i  West  Eighty- 
seventh  St.,  where  she  is  never  too  busy  to  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  the  struggling  aspirant,  and  shed  the  sunshine  of 
her  great,  warm  heart  on  all  that  are  fortunate  enough  to 
come  within  her  ken. 


DRAMATIC  TRAINING  IN  COLLEGE. 

//  Is  Not  Now  Thought  Impossible  That  a  College  Girl  May 
Yet  Produce  the  Long- Expected  American  Drama. 

"  IF  there  are  more  women  than  ever  before,  there  are 
more  professions  open  to  them,''  said  a  Vassar  graduate, 
who  has  made  a  success  of  her  chosen  profession,  to  a 
representative  of  The  Tribune  recently.  "  I  became  an 
actress  because  I  had  dramatic  talent  and  because  I  knew 
that  my  education  would  be  a  great  help  to  me  in  reach- 
ing the  coveted  goal. 

"  The  alumnae  of  more  than  one  of  our  women's  colleges 
include  a  professional  actress.  The  ambitions  of  under- 
graduates and  longings  for  the  stage  find  an  outlet  these 


56  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

days  in  the  various  clubs  devoted  to  histrionic  art  in  which 
the  colleges  abound.  Not  only  in  portrayal  of  character, 
in  elocutionary  effect,  stage  setting  and  costuming  are  in- 
genuity and  keen  dramatic  instinct  discernible,  but  the 
constructive  faculty  is  often  strikingly  apparent  in  the 
cleverness  with  which  students  adapt  plays,  frequently 
producing  original  dramas  worthy  of  public  rendition. 

"  It  is  not  improbable  that  a  Vassar,  Smith,  Wellesley, 
Radcliffe  or  Bryn  Mawr  girl  may  yet  produce  the  long- 
expected  American  drama. 

"  In  Vassar's  tentative  days  a  friend  presented  the  dra- 
matic society  with  five  sets  of  scenery.  With  this  nucleus 
the  properties  have  grown  until  Vassar  could  take  to  the 
road  to-day  better  equipped  than  many  professional  com- 
panies. It  confines  itself  chiefly  to  modern  plays. 

"At  Smith  College  greater  attention  is  given  to  legiti- 
mate drama  perhaps  than  at  any  other.  It  has  four  dramat- 
ic societies.  The  oldest  society  at  Wellesley  is  dramatic, 
the  Shakespeare  being  a  branch  of  the  London  society. 
Every  spring  it  gives  a  play  of  the  immortal  bard. 

"While  dramatic  performances  are  not  encouraged  at 
Bryn  Mawr,  two  or  three  plays  are  given  annually  in  the 
gymnasium.  Dramas  at  Bryn  Mawr,  unlike  Vassar,  must 
be  original.  The  Idlers  of  Radcliffe  are  wont  to  give  a 
drama  every  three  weeks.  As  fun  is  the  object  of  the 
club,  travesty  prevails,  and  is  almost  always  original. 
Most  of  the  colleges  have  given  Greek  plays. 

"  Some  eight  years  ago  the  success  of  '  Electra '  at 
Smith  in  the  original  Greek  arrested  the  attention  of  the 
collegiate  world.  Since  the  days  of  Sophocles  it  is  asserted 
the  world  has  not  seen  a  more  accurate  setting  of  a  Greek 
play  than  '  Antigone/  given  several  years  ago  at  Vassar. 
Perfect  in  its  lines  as  erudite  Greek  professorship  could 
make  them,  the  cast  was  then  turned  over  to  Professor 


DRAMATIC  ART.  57 

Franklin  Sargent,  director  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Dramatic  Arts." 

"  It  was  interesting  to  watch,  as  the  rehearsals  pro- 
gressed, the  triumph  of  mind  over  matter,"  said  Professor 
Sargent,  in  speaking  of  the  educational  benefits  to  be 
derived  from  the  training  involved  in  a  Greek  play.  "  At 
first  the  most  graceful  girl  in  the  parlour  was  awkward  on 
the  stage  ;  but  their  finely  disciplined  minds  soon  yielded 
like  plastic  clay.  They  grasped  every  suggestion  and 
responded  effectively.  When  I  returned  to  my  school, 
made  up  largely  of  indifferently  educated  material,  I  was 
struck  with  the  difference  and  the  uphill  work  of  impart- 
ing dramatic  training  to  the  undisciplined  mind." 


VOCAL  MUSIC. 

WOULD  SHE  BE  A  SOPRANO? 

The  Aspirant  to  Honours  Must  Study  Faithfully. — Six  Years 
of  Preparation  Not  too  Much. — A  Good  Voice  Best  at  Forty. 

IF  asked  for  a  general  statement  as  to  who  can  learn  to 
sing,  I  should  say,  "  Any  one  who  possesses  a  fair  amount 
of  talent,  a  good  musical  ear  and  plenty  of  persever- 
ance." But  the  truth  is,  it  is  not  possible  to  make  any 
rule,  the  exceptions  will  be  so  largely  in  excess.  In  no 
other  line  of  study,  perhaps,  is  it  necessary  to  make  so 
many  exceptions  as  with  vocal  students.  There  are  so 
many  things  besides  mere  voice  to  be  taken  into  consid- 
eration— temperament,  physique,  mentality,  etc. — that  I 
would  never  feel  justified  in  telling  any  pupil  absolutely, 
"You  can,"  or  "You  cannot  make  a  success,"  until  I  had 
opportunity  to  test  not  only  the  voice,  but  the  mental 
capacity  and  ability  for  persevering,  painstaking  study. 
Pupils  with  only  two  or  three  notes  in  their  voices,  and 
those  rather  bad,  have  often  come  to  me  for  lessons,  and 
by  all  known  or  excepted  rules  I  should  have  said  they 
could  never  learn  to  sing  an  ordinary  ballad  ;  yet,  by 
persistent  digging  at  note  after  note,  they  have  within 
three  years'  time  developed  sufficient  voice  to  sing 
sweetly  and  acceptably  songs  of  a  high  character. 

It  does  not  follow  because  a  pupil  has  a  perfect  organ 
and  a  good  voice  that  she  has  the  intellectuality  and 
perseverance  to  make  a  good  singer.  Pupils  with  fine 


VOCAL  MUSIC.  59 

voices,  but  a  few  grave  faults,  often  tax  my  patience  to 
the  utmost  by  their  careless  study. 

Others,  able  to  take  only  the  most  ordinary  tones,  and 
with  little  apparent  musical  talent,  have  developed  beau- 
tiful voices  by  careful,  intelligent  study.  In  fact,  some 
of  my  pupils  now  filling  the  best  church  positions  had  the 
least  musical  talent  to  begin  with ;  but  because  they 
were  good  students  and  had  large  imitative  ability  they 
have  reached  the  desired  result  in  spite  of  the  seeming 
lack  of  natural  endowment.  I  lay  stress  on  "  imitative 
ability  "  because  in  my  teaching  I  have  found  it  plays  so 
large  a  part  in  developing  students  rapidly. 

As  to  age  when  vocal  training  should  begin,  I  would 
say  not  earlier  than  seventeen  years.  This  is  not  so 
much  because  of  lack  of  physical  development  as  because 
pupils  are  not  far  enough  advanced  mentally,  have  not 
learned  to  concentrate  the  attention,  to  think  clearly  or 
comprehend  fully  what  the  teacher  is  endeavouring  to 
impart,  and  are  likely  to  acquire  habits  of  careless  study 
that  will  be  very  detrimental  later.  There  are  excep- 
tions to  this  rule,  but  in  my  wide  experience,  extending 
over  many  years,  with  hundreds  of  voices,  the  most  satis- 
factory results  have  been  attained  by  beginning  between 
the  ages  of  seventeen  and  twenty-one  years. 

To  begin  much  later  than  this  and  make  any  large 
degree  of  success,  the  pupil  must  have  exceptional  musical 
ability. 

The  time  required  to  fit  pupils  for  concert,  church  and 
oratorio,  or  opera,  varies  as  much  as  do  the  dispositions, 
talents  and  perceptive  powers  of  students,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  declare  that  any  given  number  of  years  or 
months  will  be  the  exact  time  in  which  the  desired  result 
may  be  obtained.  Unfortunately  there  are  some  teachers 
— but  they  are  few — who,  for  the  paltry  pecuniary  gain, 


60  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

• 

promise  to  fit  pupils  to  secure  church  positions  within 
one  year  ;  but  no  conscientious  teacher  would  dare  to 
guarantee  anything  of  the  kind.  Several  times  in  my 
experience  pupils  with  considerable  talent  and  close 
application  have  in  two  years — and  in  a  few  cases,  in  one 
year — secured  solo  church  positions,  but  it  would  be  mis- 
leading to  say  that  many  students  could  do  so.  In  fact, 
the  majority  could  not.  To  make  an  artist  or  artistic 
singer  requires,  in  my  opinion,  from  six  to  ten  years  of 
study. 

But  the  real  artist  never  ceases  to  study.  There  are 
many  pleasing  singers  before  the  public  who  have  not 
studied  so  much,  to  be  sure,  but  they  were  richly  endowed 
by  nature,  and  by  a  happy  combination  of  circumstances 
have  attained  popularity.  These,  however,  I  do  not  call 
artists,  and  popularity  should  not  be  the  sole  aim  of  the 
student. 

How  many  lovely  voices  come  before  the  public  for  a 
short  time  and  disappear,  never  to  be  heard  of  again,  for 
the  reason  that,  having  no  method,  the  vocal  chords  be- 
come strained,  or  throat  disease  is  contracted  ;  whereas 
a  little  more  time  given  to  the  study  of  method  in  the 
beginning  would  have  assured  them  years  of  success. 

With  judicious  use,  a  properly  trained  voice  should 
grow  better,  fuller  and  richer,  until  its  greatest  breadth  is 
reached,  between  thirty-five  and  forty. 

The  amount  of  study  relatively  required  to  prepare  pupils 
for  the  different  branches  of  a  musical  career  is  in  about 
the  following  order  :  Ordinary  concert  work,  first,  or  the 
least  time  ;  church  and  oratorio,  more  time  ;  opera,  most 
time. 

The  ordinary  concert  singer  must  have  a  good  voice 
and  pleasing  personality,  but  she  is  not  necessarily  a 
thorough  musician.  She  can  easily  acquire  a  concert 


OF  THE 


VOCAL  MUSIC.  61 

repertory  of  three  or  four  arias,  with  a  goodly  supply  of 
ballads  for  encores  ;  in  these  she  has  been  coached  by 
her  teacher  ;  and  if  she  have  sufficient  self-confidence  can 
make  her  debut  in  concert  with  a  reasonable  assurance  of 
success. 

Church  and  oratorio  singing  requires  good  ensemble 
work,  reliability,  independence,  ability  to  read  and  lead 
well,  and  a  good,  solid  foundation  of  study. 

As  to  the  needs  and  requirements  of  the  student  of 
opera,  no  limit  can  be  placed  on  the  study  of  the  voice  it 
requires,  and  our  music-loving  American  public  places  the 
standard  higher  each  year. 

The  cost  per  year  in  New  York  for  tuition  and  board 
ranges  from  $600  to  $1,000,  according  to  the  price  paid 
for  board,  as  the  charge  for  lessons  is  $4  and  $5,  and  a 
pupil  should  always  take  two  lessons  a  week. 

The  average  church-choir  salary  is  about  $600  for  solo 
soprano  and  $450  for  solo  contralto.  Eight  hundred  dol- 
lars for  soprano  and  $600  for  contralto  are  considered  an 
excellent  salary,  while  $1,000  and  $1,200  are  first  class, 
and  are  paid  by  several  of  the  t>est  churches  in  New  York 
and  Boston.  Second  quartet  work  commands  about  $250 
a  year  for  soprano  and  $200  for  contralto,  while  chorus 
salaries  range  from  $i  to  $3  a  Sunday.  In  smaller  cities 
salaries  range  from  $300  to  $800. 

In  selecting  the  special  branch  of  music  to  which  you 
will  devote  yourself,  the  quality  of  voice  must  be  con- 
sidered to  a  large  extent.  How  many  debuts  that  might 
have  been  great  triumphs  have  been  comparative  failures 
because  this  fact  was  not  carefully  enough  considered  ! 

A  lyric  soprano  who  could  have  won  marked  success 
in  her  own  musical  sphere  of  colourature  singing  fails 
because  circumstances  or  bad  advice  leads  her  to  appear 
in  the  heavy  role  that  can  only  be  acceptably  sung  by  a 


62  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

dramatic  soprano.  Many  voices  are  ruined  by  this  strain- 
ing after  a  quality  they  do  not  possess.  Teachers  should 
be  especially  careful  of  this  one  point. 

I  often  have  pupils  who  are  determined  to  acquire  at 
any  cost  notes  that  are  not  in  the  voice,  and  that  probably 
never  can  be  acquired,  or,  if  so,  only  by  years  of  the  most 
patient  study.  Parents  frequently  insist  that  their  daugh- 
ters must  be  able  to  sing  a  high  soprano  when  they  pos- 
sess only  the  most  ordinary  mezzo-soprano  voice.  But 
the  conscientious  teacher  will  insist  that  every  voice  under 
her  tuition  must  develop  smoothly  and  naturally. 

In  the  selection  of  a  teacher,  I  would  say  :  "  Look  with 
suspicion  on  the  teacher  who  fails  to  lay  great  stress  on 
method  or  who  flatters  a  great  deal.  The  teacher  who 
impresses  on  you  the  necessity  for  patient,  continued 
work,  is  frank  and  persistent  in  criticising  your  faults,  and 
will  not  accept  a  poor  lesson,  is  the  one  you  are  looking 
for,  if  you  are  in  earnest.  Having  found  her,  give  her 
your  best  efforts,  for  she  can  only  teach  ;  you  yourself 
must  make  the  application," 

MARIE  SEYMOUR  BISSELL. 


BEGINNERS  IN  SONG  PARTS. 

A  Good  Voice  a  Means  of  Support. — Chances  and  Salaries  on 
the  Stage. — Good  Chorus  Singers  Always  in  Demand. 

YOUNG  women  who  are  equipped  with  good  singing 
voices,  in  addition  to  dramatic  ability,  enjoy  a  better 
prospect  of  prompt  engagement  and  future  advancement 
than  other  aspirants  to  life  on  the  stage. 

A  few  voices  command  instant  recognition,  even  in 
grand  opera,  but  it  is  not  of  these  that  I  speak. 


VOCAL  MUSIC.  63 

If  the  singer  is  without  experience,  she  gains  a  certain 
advantage  over  the  new  actress  at  the  agencies,  because 
a  voice  can  be  tested  and  recommended,  where  fitness  for 
a  speaking  part  cannot.  I  have  in  my  agency  an  assistant 
whose  sole  duty  it  is  to  listen  to  the  voices  of  those  who 
desire  to  be  singing  actresses,  and  to  pass  upon  their 
fitness  for  the  stage. 

There  is  always  a  demand  for  good  chorus  singers. 
The  salary  paid  is  a  fair  one — $12  to  $18  per  week — and 
everything  is  supplied  in  the  way  of  costumes,  except 
shoes  and  tights,  and  the  young  woman  does  not  need  a 
large  amount  of  money  as  a  reserve  while  waiting  for  an 
engagement.  Most  singers,  except  the  greatest,  start  in 
the  chorus,  and  it  is  an  excellent  thing  to  do  this,  unless 
one  has  had  previous  dramatic  experience  as  an  educa- 
tional measure. 

When  a  girl  comes  to  me  I  look  first  at  her  personal 
appearance — that  is  what  the  public  does — then  at  her 
carriage.  Her  voice  and  temperament  are  next  in  order. 
Of  these  qualifications  the  first  and  last  named  are  most 
important.  All  the  rest  may  be  acquired. 

As  to  the  advisibility  of  trying  new  material,  managers 
differ.  Most  of  them  are  wary  of  tyros,  but  some  of  the 
best  are  forever  looking  for  new  talent.  Several  have  a 
number  of  people  in  their  employment  always,  on  salaries 
of  $5  or  $6  a  week,  ready  for  work  when  opportunity  pre- 
sents itself. 

All  good  managers  and  dramatic  agents  are  critical  of 
the  dress  and  behaviour  of  women  who  present  themselves 
for  engagements.  The  most  modest,  lady-like  and  unob- 
trusive, other  things  being  equal,  make  the  best  impres- 
sion and  have  the  best  chance  of  recognition.  She  who 
wears  all  over  her  the  fact  that  she  is  an  actress,  or  wants 
to  be,  finds  that  people  become  prejudiced  against  her 


64  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

from  the  start.  Whether  she  plays  the  part  of  a  lady  on 
the  stage  or  not,  she  must  play  it  off  the  stage,  if  she  is  to 
succeed. 

E.  L.  FERNANDEZ. 


A  WIDE  FIELD  FOR  SWEET  VOICES. 

NEARLY  every  woman  endowed  by  nature  with  good 
vocal  organs  muses  at  times  over  the  possibility  of  success 
on  the  public  stage. 

If  she  belongs  to  a  prosperous  family  and  has  no  reason 
for  seeking  an  independent  income,  she  may  resist  the 
temptation  to  appear  as  a  member  of  some  regular  dra- 
matic concert  or  operatic  company,  and  may  devote  her 
talents  to  giving  happiness  to  others  in  private  life. 

If,  however,  the  necessity  of  a  career  confronts  her,  she 
may  seek  a  connection  with  an  established  company, 
beginning  either  as  chorus  girl  or  "understudy,"  and 
waiting  wearily  for  her  own  chance  to  appear  before  the 
footlights  or  going  at  once  into  the  chorus,  and,  after  a 
suitable  apprenticeship,  gaining  a  position  as  a  recognised 
public  singer.  With  talent,  she  may  then  hope  for  earn- 
ings beyond  the  routine  salary  given  to  persons  of  aver- 
age abilities. 

Supposing  that  the  period  of  tuition,  the  severe  disci- 
pline and  the  dangers  which  threaten  the  new  voice,  and 
other  preliminaries,  as  described  by  Miss  Bissell  and  Mrs. 
Fernandez,  have  been  passed,  the  weary  waiting  is  over 
and  the  singer  has  reached  the  long-desired  recognition  as 
a  "star."  A  few  become  "stars"  without  previous  pro- 
bation. What  rewards  may  they  then  expect  from  the 
exercise  of  their  art  ? 

These  depend,  of  course,  entirely  upon  the  excellence 


VOCAL  MUSIC.  65 

of  the  voice  and  the  popular  demand  for  good  singers. 
Every  operatic  manager  can  tell  the  beginner  of  the 
scarcity  of  really  fine  voices  in  the  world,  and  of  the  prices 
which  managers  are  willing  to  pay  to  secure  them.  The 
sum  of  $200  a  week  is  not  too  much  to  expect  for  a  singer 
with  magnetism  of  manner,  coupled'  with  exceptional 
purity  and  sweetness  of  voice,  quite  early  in  her  career. 
From  that  point  on  the  rewards  increase  until  $1,000  to 
$2,500  a  night  will  be  paid  to  any  one  who  is  worth  it. 
Patti  has  earned  $5,000.  Patti,  Emma  Eames,  Nordica, 
Emma  Abbott,  Albani  and  other  American  singers  have 
made  fortunes  or  the  beginnings  of  them  in  the  field  of 
operatic  singing.  Other  fortunes  await  the  newcomers 
who  possess  voices  such  as  these. 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD. 

LYCEUM  STARS. 

Long  Experience  with  Woman  Lecturers  Past  and  Present. — 

Major  Pond  Says  Frankly  that  Maude  Ballington 

Booth  Is  the  Only  One  People  Will  Now 

Pay  to  Hear. — Some  Notable 

Careers. 

"  I  AM  requested  by  Mr.  Mowey  to  say  that  a  hen  will 
undertake  to  crow  like  a  cock  at  the  Town  Hall  this 
afternoon  at  5  o'clock.  Anybody  who  wants  to  hear  that 
kind  of  music  will,  of  course,  attend." 

The  announcement  above  was  made  by  the  pastor  of 
the  Congregational  Church  in  Maiden,  Mass.,  in  the 
autumn  of  1847.  A  woman  was  to  address  a  meeting  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  of  which  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison, Wendell  Phillips  and  Theodore  Parker  were  the 
presiding  geniuses.  Everybody  besieged  Mr.  Mowey  to 
learn  what  kind  of  a  hen  it  was.  He  told  them  it  was 
Miss  Lucy  Stone,  a  young  woman  who  was  graduated 
from  a  college  out  West,  in  an  Ohio  town  called  Oberlin, 
where  women  were  allowed  the  same  educational  priv- 
ileges as  men.  This  remarkable  announcement  was  a 
great  advertisement,  and  brought  together  a  large  meet- 
ing. 

It  was  the  first  time  in  the  lives  of  the  people  that  a 
woman's  voice  was  heard  from  the  rostrum  in  the  cause 
of  freedom.  From  that  time  onward  for  many  years  Lucy 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  67 

Stone  travelled  and  lectured  in  behalf  of  woman  suffrage 
and  the  slave,  suffering  the  same  persecutions  as  did 
Phillips  and  other  lecturers. 

One  night  while  speaking  in  New  England  a  pane  of 
glass  was  removed  from  a  window  behind  the  speaker 
and  a  hose  put  through  it.  The  little  girl  lecturer  was 
deluged  with  ice-water.  Wrapping  her  shawl  closely 
about  her  she  calmly  finished  her  address.  Again,  at  Cape 
Cod,  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  held  a  meeting  in  a  grove. 
The  mob  surrounded  the  speakers  and  roughly  handled 
Mr.  Foster  and  Miss  Stone.  The  bravery  of  the  latter  so 
won  the  admiration  of  the  leader  of  the  mob  that  he  de- 
fended her  with  a  club,  and  stood  by  her  while  from  a 
stump  she  addressed  the  multitude.  The  listeners  were 
so  moved  by  her  speech  that  they  subsided  into  quiet, 
and  at  its  conclusion  a  collection  of  twenty  dollars  was 
taken  up  to  pay  Foster  for  his  coat. 

When  Lucy  Stone  died,  at  Dorchester,  Mass.,  October, 
1893,  the  entire  press  of  America  and  the  civilised  world 
eulogized  her.  The  Boston  Herald  said :  "  She  goes  to 
her  grave  honoured,  beloved  and  mourned  by  the  whole 
American  people."  The  New  York  Independent :  "  The 
death  of  Lucy  Stone  removes  one  of  the  world's  greatest 
benefactors."  Harpers  Weekly:  "Her  life  was  full  of 
earnestness,  goodness,  blessedness,  and  the  world  is  better 
that  she  lived."  I  knew  Lucy  Stone  only  slightly  during 
the  last  decade  of  her  life.  She  was  small  in  stature, 
dainty  in  dress,  and  possessed  a  voice  of  singular  sweet- 
ness. Hers  was  a  sympathetic  and  charming  personality. 
Never  again  will  there  be  a  woman  orator  of  her  type. 
Conditions  are  wanting.  She  was  a  product  of  the  times. 

The  first  woman's  name  on  the  list  of  the  Redpath 
Lyceum  Bureau,  in  1869,  was  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore, 
and  it  has  remained  there  ever  since.  She  has  travelled 


68  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

more  widely  and  delivered  more  lectures  than  any  other 
woman  of  whom  we  have  any  record.  She  wrote  me  that, 
notwithstanding  she  had  averaged  more  than  one  hundred 
lyceum  lectures  a  year  since  the  war,  she  had  delivered 
more  than  one  thousand  lectures  on  temperance  and  over 
one  thousand  in  the  cause  of  woman  suffrage,  besides 
morning  lectures  before  schools  and  colleges. 

Later  she  helped  to  organize  the  United  States  Sanitary 
and  Christian  Commission,  which  raised  over  $60,000,000 
for  the  soldiers  in  our  hospitals. 

What  an  ideal  of  womanhood  !  Mrs.  Livermore  is  still 
living  in  her  pretty  home  in  Mehon,  Mass.,  where  she  not 
long  ago  celebrated  her  golden  wedding.  She  is  still 
available  for  the  lyceum.  The  interest  and  activity  of 
her  eventful  life  have  kept  her  young. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  Anna  Dickinson  was  the 
greatest  woman  on  the  American  lyceum  platform.  She 
made  her  first  appearance  at  a  woman's  rights  convention 
held  in  Philadelphia  about  the  beginning  of  the  war.  At 
that  meeting  a  man  made  a  bitter,  sarcastic  speech  against 
woman's  equal  political  rights.  After  listening  to  his 
tirade  the  young  Quaker  girl  arose  and  walked  down  the 
aisle  to  where  he  sat,  shook  her  fist  in  his  face,  and  began 
to  answer  him.  The  brilliancy  of  her  rhetoric  and  the 
force  of  her  logic  astonished  everybody  who  heard  her. 
From  that  time  until  she  retired  from  the  platform  she 
was  without  a  rival.  She  was  sought  on  every  side. 
Only  Beecher  and  Gough  surpassed  her  as  lyceum  favour- 
ites. 

Miss  Dickinson  was  not  satisfied  with  being  the  greatest 
actress,  in  a  true  sense,  that  her  country  had  produced. 
She  had  a  passion  for  the  mimic  stage,  and  yearned  to  be 
i  great  player.  She  made  the  essay,  and  failed,  of  course. 
Not  even  her  most  devoted  friends  could  repudiate  the 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  69 

fact  that  she  was  an  utter  failure.      Despite  her  great 
genius  as  an  orator,  Thespian  laurels  escaped  her  wholly. 

Susan  B.  Anthony  and  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  are  and 
have  been  for  many  years  among  the  foremost  of  our 
women  orators.  They  will  occupy  in  history  the  same 
position  in  the  cause  of  woman's  rights  as  do  Phillips  and 
Garrison  on  the  anti-slavery  question.  They  are  sincere 
pioneers  in  their  work.  Mrs.  Stanton  is  the  most 
scholarly  woman  in  the  field.  The  signs  of  the  time  indicate 
that  these  great  women  may  live  to  see  their  cause  triumph. 

Julia  Ward  Howe  is  recognised  as  one  of  the  most 
refined,  high-bred,  noble  women  of  the  age.  Her  plea 
has  been  humanity.  She  was  one  of  the  first  to  edit  an 
Abolition  paper,  in  Boston.  With  her  husband,  Dr. 
Howe,  she  brought  about  a  meeting  in  the  early  sixties 
between  Abolitionists  on  one  side  and  pro-slavery  men 
on  the  other,  in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  where  Robert 
Toombs,  of  Georgia,  and  Sam  Houston,  of  Texas,  had 
leading  parts. 

Those  were  lively  times,  Mrs.  Howe  has  told  me.  Mrs. 
Howe  has  lectured  in  almost  every  State  of  the  Union. 
Not  later  than  1894  she  made  a  long  Western  and  South- 
western tour.  She  has  lectured  in  Paris  in  the  French 
language  ;  also  in  Athens  and  Vienna. 

Mrs.  Howe's  place  in  history  is  probably  fixed  by  her 
"  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  sung  by  every  soldier 
of  the  Rebellion  and  not  forgotten  during  the  late  war, 
rather  than  by  her  achievements  on  the  platform.  For 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  these  women  have  given 
their  best  efforts  to  the  lyceum.  They  have  not  only 
made  the  platform  historic  but  symbolical  of  talent, 
education,  genius  and  reform. 

Where  are  the  women  to  take  their  places  ?  Are  they 
browsing  in  preparatory  schools  ?  I  have  been  looking 


70  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

for  their  successors,  but  to  date  have  failed  to  find  the 
quality  of  material  of  which  these  remarkable  women 
were  made.  They  were  the  gifted  offsprings  of  the 
colossal  contests  of  their  era.  Magazines  galore  give  us 
pretty  photographs  of  women  of  our  time,  prominent  on 
its  stage  and  in  the  lyceum,  but  who  knows  them  ?  Where 
are  their  audiences  ? 

Mrs.  Maude  Ballington  Booth  is  the  only  woman 
orator  of  this  decade  whom  the  public  will  turn  out  and 
pay  to  hear.  Why  ?  First  of  all,  she  is  the  ablest  woman 
orator,  in  my  opinion,  in  America.  Her  cause,  prison 
reform  and  the  work  of  the  Volunteers  of  America,  is 
most  worthy.  She  is  probably  the  most  beloved  woman 
in  the  land.  Certainly  she  is  the  most  attractive  of  all 
our  women  speakers.  She/  has  fire  and  magnetism — gifts 
of  the  highest  oratorical  order,  sustained  and  animated 
by  deep  conviction,  high  purpose  and  burning  earnestness. 
These  great  essentials  are  of  paramount  importance  to 
success  on  the  platform.  The  woman  who  does  not 
possess  them  by  nature  can  rarely  if  ever  acquire  them 
by  art,  and  without  them  she  cannot  hope  for  the  laurels 
that  endure,  and  had  better  eschew  lecturing  as  a  means 
of  livelihood. 

J.  B.  POND. 


ILLUSTRATED  LECTURING. 

A  Pleasant  and  Lucrative  Field. —  The  Preparation  of  Text, 

Slide  Painting,  Camera  Operating  and  Booking  of 

Dates. 

WOMEN'S  schools  and  colleges  abound  to-day  in  debat- 
ing societies  and  organizations  which  invite  the  timid  to 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  71 

"  speak  out  in  meeting."  The  rapid  spread  of  women's 
clubs  continues  to  reveal  forensic  gifts  that  would  other- 
wise in  all  probability  have  lain  dormant.  The  ease  and 
fluency  of  expression  acquired  at  college  and  in  clubs  is 
naturally  increasing  the  number  of  women  who  find  an 
agreeable  and  lucrative  livelihood  in  the  illustrated  lec- 
ture field.  There  is  scarcely  a  feature  pertaining  to  the 
preparation,  booking  or  delivery  of  an  illustrated  lecture 
which  is  not  within  the  province  of  the  right  woman.  In 
choice  of  subject  for  general  entertainment  or  instruction 
it  is  claimed  that  women  have  more  originality  than  men. 

"  It  is  a  widely  acknowledged  fact,"  a  public  speaker 
tells  The  Tribune,  "  that  when  women  speak  in  public 
they  generally  have  something  to  tell.  Their  voices  may 
be  painful,  their  expression  crude,  their  embarrassment 
pitiable,  but  at  bottom  there  is  usually  something  tangi- 
ble, while  frequent  attendance  at  men's  gatherings  is  liable 
to  reveal  a  waste  of  verbosity,  and,  as  a  rule,  little  that  is 
to  the  point.  The  lecture  field  has  many  phases  which 
the  novice  would  do  well  to  consider  carefully  before 
embarking  in  it  for  a  livelihood.  Lecturing  seems  easy 
to  the  uninitiated.  If  the  testimony  of  veterans  is  to  be 
credited,  however,  it  is  a  trying  profession.  Is  there  any 
calling  that  has  not  its  trials? " 

"  Aside  from  the  fatigue  of  travel,  stage  fright  and  a 
realisation  of  the  responsibility  of  facing  an  audience  and 
bringing  the  lecture  up  to  their  expectations,"  says  Miss 
Mary  Proctor,  the  well-known  astronomical  lecturer,  "I 
find  lecturing  a  most  pleasant  profession.  The  remunera- 
tion is  excellent.  If  a  woman  so  inclined  has  some  other 
work  to  help  pay  her  expenses  while  she  works  her  way 
to  public  favour,  I  would  say  let  her  try  lecturing  by  all 
means." 

It  is  five  years  since  Miss  Proctor  took  to  the  platform. 


72  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Since  then  she  has  given  more  than  three  hundred  lec- 
tures and  travelled  to  all  parts  of  the  country.  Successor 
to  an  illustrious  name,  the  way  was  practically  open  to 
her.  She  was  reared  in  the  lecture  atmosphere.  Thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  work,  she  has  no  competitors  in 
her  line. 

"  One  must  be  fond  of  the  subject,"  said  Miss  Proctor. 
"  Otherwise  the  audience  will  detect  that  it  is  purely  a 
money-making  venture,  and  she  will  fail  to  elicit  or  hold 
their  attention.  Curiosity  may  bring  an  audience  once, 
but  merit  alone  will  bring  it  a  second  time.  There  is  no 
public  so  quick  as  the  American.  It  knows  on  a  second 
return  whether  a  lecturer  has  improved.  One  must  study 
constantly  to  improve.  Study  audiences,  introduce  new 
and  pleasing  features,  and  never  apologise.  The  fact 
that  the  lecturer  is  a  woman  will  not  condone  failure  in 
the  eyes  of  a  public  that  pays  to  be  entertained  or  in- 
structed. 

"  The  woman  lecturer  must  above  all  learn  to  keep  her 
contracts  at  any  hazapd.  It  is  a  great  detriment  for  one 
who  hopes  to  make  her  living  as  a  lecturer  to  start  out  as 
a  fad.  One  season  is  the  paying  life  of  a  New  York  fad. 
She  must  take  and  maintain  a  professional  basis  if  she 
would  have  permanent  success.  Her  repertory  must 
include  at  least  three  lectures.  The  subject  must  be 
fresh  and  unhackneyed.  Lectures  of  travel  are  over- 
done. The  illustrations  must  be  plentiful,  novel,  beauti- 
ful and  artistic,  and  the  subject  chosen  one  in  which  the 
lecturer  has  warm  interest. 

"  No  woman  should  attempt  to  address  an  audience 
until  she  has  learned  to  breathe  properly,  otherwise  her 
voice  will  fail  her.  Vocal  or  breathing  lessons  are  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Intellectually  and  materially 
equipped,  the  'rub  '  comes  in  securing  engagements.  It 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  73 

is  a  distinctive  art.  Many  lecturers  find  it  much  more 
satisfactory  and  remunerative  to  manage  the  booking  of 
their  lectures  personally  than  to  put  it  in  the  hands  of  a 
bureau.  One  may  make  dates  to  suit  "herself  and  save 
the  percentage  agents  or  bureaus  exact." 

The  increasing  popularity  of  the  illustrated  lecture  has 
opened  up  two  other  novel  fields  of  labour,  in  which  not  a 
few  women  are  earning  comfortable  incomes — namely, 
lantern-slide  painting  and  camera  operating.  Large  num- 
bers of  women  are  employed  in  painting  coloured  slides  ; 
some  in  the  service  of  individuals,  the  majority  in  the 
employ  of  stereopticon  firms.  Copies  of  photographs, 
engravings  and  wood  cuts  are  photographed  on  the 
glass  slides.  The  slide  painter  then  applies  the  colour, 
transparent  pigments  being  used.  Success  lies  in  deft- 
ness of  handling.  So  critical  and  exacting  has  the  public 
become  as  regards  coloured  slides  that  women  are  now 
met  in  the  galleries  abroad  copying  the  colours  of  the 
original  pictures  directly  on  to  the  lantern  slides. 

Miss  Katherine  Breed,  of  Chicago,  spent  months  on  the 
Mediterranean,  in  the  Orient  and  in  Yellowstone  Park,  and 
the  results  of  her  skill  were  seen  during  last  winter  at 
Burton  Holmes's  lectures.  Miss  Breed  owes  her  skill 
largely  to  her  uncle,  the  late  Dr.  David  Breed,  an  artist, 
who  discovered  a  secret  process  which  greatly  advanced 
the  artistic  value  of  slide-painting.  Miss  Breed  is  a  rela- 
tive of  the  veteran  stereopticon  lecturer,  John  H. 
Stoddard. 

It  takes  an  expert  slide-painter  from  half  an  hour  to 
three  hours  to  paint  one  slide.  It  is  paid  by  the  piece, 
and  $4  is  an  expert's  earnings  when  employed  by  a  firm. 
The  work  is  steady  throughout  the  year. 

Professor  Bickmore,  of  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  has  in  his  employ  Miss  Bertha  Fuller 


74  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Sexton,  whose  work  is  confined  exclusively  to  the  paint- 
ing of  flower  slides. 

Only  one  woman  in  New  York  has  yet  entered  prob- 
ably the  most  desirable  part  of  the  lecture  business,  Mrs. 
Campbell,  wife  of  Captain  Campbell,  the  lecturer  on 
Hawaii  and  naval  subjects.  She  is  a  professional  camera 
operator. 

The  lecture  season  extends  from  October  to  May.  A 
lecture  lasts  one  hour  and  a  half,  and  a  good  operator 
commands  from  $8  to  $10  an  evening  within  city  limits. 


WHAT  LECTURERS  EARN. 

Oratory  in  Lessening  Vogue. — Payments  as  Large  as  Ever, 

Notwithstanding,  for  a  Nights  Work. — A  Lyceum 

Manager  s  Experience. — Popular  Lecturers. 

THE  lecture  platform  is  not  now  such  a  promising  field 
for  talent  as  it  has  been  in  former  years.  University  ex- 
tension, women's  clubs  and  the  magazines  have  nearly 
taken  away  the  prerogative  of  instruction  once  monopo- 
lized by  the  lecturer.  People  study  at  home  now,  and  go 
out  to  be  amused.  Unless  there  is  some  special  subject 
at  command,  one  not  yet  presented  to  the  public,  there  is 
small  encouragement  to  be  held  out  to  women  who  desire 
to  enter  into  this  line  of  work. 

In  the  old  days,  Anna  Dickinson,  Kate  Field,  Francis 
Willard,  and,  best  of  all,  Mrs.  Livermore,  could  not 
begin  to  fill  the  lecture  engagements  open  to  them. 
After  Mrs.  Lockwood  made  her  famous  campaign  for 
President  she  was  almost  as  much  in  demand. 

At  the  present  time,  Miss  Mary  Proctor,  daughter  of 
the  famous  astronomer,  and  herself  an  astronomer  of 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  75 

note,  lectures  with  success  on  topics  relating  to  her 
science.  Miss  Annie  S.  Peck  and  Vandelia  Varnum  are 
also  prosperous  in  their  work.  Miss  Esther  Lyon  attracts 
large  audiences  to  her  lecture  on  Alaska  and  the  Klon- 
dike, a  timely  subject,  and  there  is  always  a  certain 
demand  for  temperance  lecturers. 

While  the  field  is  now  distinctly  limited,  there  is  always 
room  for  the  best  talent,  here  as  elsewhere,  and  a  general 
idea  of  the  requirements  and  compensation  is  gladly 
given. 

In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  frankly  stated  that  no- 
where else  does  reputation  go  so  far  toward  success. 
One  must  have  established  the  fact  that  she  knows  her 
subject  before  the  public  will  show  any  interest  in  hear- 
ing a  woman  talk,  or  a  man,  either. 

If  a  woman  has  achieved  prominence  in  some  direction, 
if  she  has  travelled  or  explored  some  new  territory,  and 
has  either  written  about  it,  or  has  been  written  about  her- 
self, she  already  possesses  an  interest  for  the  outside 
world.  If  she  has  earned  an  honourable  place  in  art, 
literature,  science,  philanthropy  or  reform,  she  easily 
attracts  an  audience.  But  if  she  has  accomplished  none 
of  these  things,  she  can  hardly  expect  to  find  a  foothold 
on  the  lecture  platform.  The  lecturer  speaks  as  "  one 
having  authority/'  and  the  first  business  is  to  convince 
people  of  the  authority. 

The  fees  paid  for  platform  work  are  as  large  as  ever,  in 
spite  of  the  lessening  vogue  of  oratory.  A  lyceum 
manager  or  lecture  course  committee  pays  from  $25  to 
$50  a  night,  and  in  special  cases  $100.  Four  nights  a 
week  is  the  least  that  is  expected  from  a  lecturer  during 
the  four  or  five  months  of  the  season. 

The  most  popular  lecturers  appear  every  night  in  the 
week,  Sundays  excepted.  The  fees  appear  large,  but  when 


76  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

half  is  deducted,  as  it  must  be,  for  travelling  expenses, 
hotel  bills  and  minor  expenses,  the  profits  are  only  fairly 
good. 

The  form  of  platform  work  best  adapted  to  the  woman 
of  to-day  is  entertainments  of  the  monologue  or  imper- 
sonating character.  To  a  talented,  attractive  and  mag- 
netic young  woman  this  work  may  be  found  quite 
profitable.  There  are  a  great  many  in  it,  to  be  sure,  but 
there  is  room  for  better  ones  always. 

The  elocutionist  is  paid  from  $25  to  $40  a  night  during 
the  season.  If  she  can  obtain  a  position  with  a  concert 
company,  or  with  other  entertainers,  she  may  command  a 
salary  of  $30  a  week,  or  even  more.  She  will  have  her 
travelling  expenses  and  sometimes  her  hotel  expenses 
paid,  in  addition  to  her  salary,  which  will  not  be  the  case 
if  she  appears  alone, 

ALONZO  FOSTER. 


STARS  OF  LESSER  DEGREE. 

Drawing-Room  Lecturers. — Intellectual  Women   May   Earn 

a  Comfortable  Support  Without  Appearing  in  Public 

Halls. 

IN  his  paper  on  "Lyceum  Stars  "  Major  Pond  dwells 
on  conspicuous  examples  of  women  lecturers.  Mr.  Foster, 
who  is  a  lyceum  manager  of  repute,  refers  to  a  number 
who  have  made  name  and  even  a  competence  in  the  pro- 
fession. But  "  there  are  others." 

In  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States,  collectively, 
there  are  scores  of  women,  some  of  whom  do  not  aspire 
to  abandon  domestic  life  altogether,  others  being  re- 
strained from  travel  among  the  States  by  duties  at  home, 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  77 

who  find  congenial  employment,  which,  at  any  rate,  serves 
the  purposes  of  a  livelihood,  in  the  delivery  of  lectures 
upon  what  may  be  called  the  drawing-room  stage.  Such 
women  earn  $500,  $1,000,  $2,000,  and  sometimes  even 
more,  a  year,  in  this  pleasant,  but  labourious,  field  of  effort. 

While  the  rewards  are  attractive,  let  it  not  be  under- 
stood that  they  can  be  won  without  strong  effort.  In 
fact,  the  labour  of  preparation  is  so  great  that  few  wo- 
men are  equal  to  the  undertaking  or  willing  to  undergo 
the  toil. 

No  mere  neophyte  can  hope  to  succeed  on  the  drawing- 
room  stage  any  more  than  in  the  larger  public  field.  The 
fair  lecturer  must  have  something  to  say,  the  more  fresh 
and  original  the  better  ;  and  she  must  have  the  ability  to 
say  it  well.  She  need  not  have  acquired  public  reputa- 
tion, as  one  who  has  run  for  Governor  of  a  State  or  spent 
her  life  in  demanding  the  suffrage  for  her  sex.  She  need 
not  be  so  dramatic  in  delivery  as  to  insure  success  in  a 
theatrical  entertainment,  were  it  convenient  for  her  to 
embark  upon  the  stormy  sea  of  adventure  in  the  drama. 

But  she  must  be  able  to  instruct  and  entertain,  both  by 
the  freshness  and  value  of  what  she  has  to  say  and  by  her 
manner.  Of  course,  if  she  has  conducted  a  successful 
magazine  or  newspaper,  or  if,  as  Mrs.  Runkle  did,  she 
has  aided  in  the  editing  of  an  important  literary  work, 
she  need  not  despise  the  advantages  which  publicity  will 
bring  her. 

Preparation  for  a  lecture  course  on  the  private  stage, 
such  as  is  given  every  winter  in  most  of  our  large  cities, 
in  the  houses  of  a  few  rich  and  fashionable  friends, 
involves  weeks  of  determined  collection  of  materials  from 
the  libraries  or  expensive  trips  to  foreign  lands  taken 
solely  for  the  same  purpose.  This,  perhaps,  is  equally 
true  of  any  one  who  wishes  to  enter  into  the  general  lee- 


78  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ture  field.  It  is  true,  nevertheless,  of  the  private  lecture 
course. 

The  lecturer  is  a  raconteur,  a  teacher,  one  who  has 
something  to  say,  about  which  she  knows  more  than  her 
hearers.  Herein  she  differs  from  that  other  great  teacher, 
the  newspaper.  The  newspaper  commends  itself  to  read- 
ers largely  by  telling  them  about  things  they  are  already 
familiar  with  to  a  certain  extent.  Everyone  who  attends 
the  opera  and  knows  all  about  the  night's  performance 
wants  to  read  about  the  affair  next  day.  The  lecturer 
takes  another  line. 

Mrs.  Louise  Seymour  Houghton  became  deeply  versed 
in  the  line  of  topics  upon  which  she  lectured  to  such  good 
advantage  by  previous  services  as  editor  of  a  religious 
weekly.  Another  lecturer  makes  a  business  of  taking  a 
foreign  trip  when  a  new  lecture  must  be  composed  to 
entertain  audiences  who  have  heard  all  there  was  to  say 
on  subjects  previously  presented  to  them. 

Whether  the  subject  of  the  lecture  be  Shakespeare,  the 
literature  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  rights  of  woman,  Bible 
history,  international  law  (and  there  are  lecture  courses 
for  the  drawing-room  stage  on  this  formidable  topic),  if 
the  lecturer  will  prepare  herself  thoroughly  and  well,  and 
has  the  confidence  born  of  a  full  mind,  she  may  hope  to 
earn  an  excellent  support,  with  the  aid  of  a  few  social 
friends.  It  is  the  custom  to  arrange  for  a  course  of  ten 
lectures  on  any  one  topic,  and  two  of  these  are  delivered 
in  the  parlours  of  each  of  five  friends,  one  of  the  latter 
sometimes  acting  as  treasurer  of  the  course,  and  thus 
lending  her  influence  to  its  success. 

The  usual  price  for  a  series  of  ten  lectures  is  $10.  And 
as  a  rule  it  is  not  difficult  to  secure  an  attendance  of  fifty 
women  at  each  lecture.  The  same  lecture  may  be 
delivered  in  several  different  localities  during  the  same 


THE  LECTURE  FIELD.  79 

season.  If  her  home  is  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Chicago  or  any  other  Metropolitan  city,  the  lecturer  has 
all  the  prosperous  communities  within  a  radius  of,  say, 
two  hundred  miles,  at  her  command  for  a  season's  work. 
If  she  lacks  personal  friends  in  any  of  these  cities,  there 
are  ways  to  open  the  doors  of  the  leading  women  of  the 
place,  nevertheless. 

Cases  of  success  in  this  field  are  well  known  in  Boston, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  other  principal 
American  cities. 

One  woman  lecturer  is  well  known  to  have  supported 
her  family  during  many  trying  years  following  her  hus- 
band's death  by  drawing-room  courses.  She  educated 
her  two  boys  for  college,  aided  to  get  them  established  in 
business,  and  bought  a  house  from  the  proceeds  of  her 
persistent  labours  in  this  field.  Others  win  an  excellent 
support  and  live  in  comfort  upon  their  earnings. 

An  occasional  excursion  into  literary  work  pure  and 
simple — the  editing  of  a  weekly  publication,  the  compila- 
tion of  a  collection  of  authors,  the  writing  of  a  new  book, 
the  reading  of  newly  submitted  novels  in  large  publishing 
houses,  book  reviewing,  and  other  such  work — may  win 
the  woman  lecturer  away  from  this  line  of  effort  from 
time  to  time,  but  the  calling  is  one  to  which  she  can  return 
at  any  time  whenever  there  is  a  new  subject  to  talk  about 
or  when  convenience  serves. 


PIANO  PLAYING. 

BEGIN  EARLY. 

//  Is  Hard  to  Acquire  Excellence  After  Maturity. — Kate  S 
Chittenden  Thinks  Native  Talent  More  Needed  in  In- 
strumental than  in  Vocal  Music. 

THE  qualities  essential  for  a  good  musician  are  a  sensi- 
tive temperament,  an  acute  ear  and  a  logical  mind.  The 
successful  musician  must  possess  indomitable  persever- 
ance, indifference  to  adverse  criticism,  and  be  able  to  main- 
tain steadfastly  the  pursuit  of  a  distinct  aim.  While  a 
musical  ear  can  be  cultivated  to  a  .certain  extent,  and 
taste  can  be  stimulated,  yet  one  must  have  been  born 
with  a  natural  aptitude  for  the  art  to  become  a  good  musi- 
cian. 

I  have  been  interested  in  hearing  of  an  experiment  tried 
upon  a  little  child,  who,  apparently  born  with  no  talent,  is 
being  hypnotized  once  a  week,  with  the  idea  of  develop- 
ing a  taste  for  music  ;  and,  according  to  her  teacher,  this 
hypnotic  influence  is  having  the  desired  effect.  But,  in 
my  opinion,  it  is  a  most  dangerous  thing  to  hypnotize  a 
child  for  such  a  purpose,  because  it  may  leave  her  a  prey 
to  hypnotic  influences  all  her  life. 

In  regard  to  the  age  when  one  should  begin  the  study  of 
instrumental  music,  I  may  quote  the  great  violinist,  Joa- 
chim, who  is  reported  to  have  said  that  to  become  a 
virtuoso  it  is  necessary  for  the  child  to  begin  work  at  five 
years  of  age  in  order  to  train  the  nerves  and  muscles  to 


PIANO  PLAYING.  81 

control  the  instrument.  Yet  early  training  alone  will  not 
insure  virtuosity. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  in  the  letters  of  Mrs.  Browning 
how  her  little  son  Penini,  the  now  celebrated  painter, 
Robert  Barrett  Browning,  was  taught  the  piano  by  his 
father,  who  sat  beside  him  two  hours  daily,  and  that  when 
he  was  ten  years  old  he  was  able  to  play  Beethoven's 
Sonata,  opus  7,  in  E  flat.  Yet  he  remained  a  musical 
amateur.  On  the  other  hand,  no  one  knows  to  how  great 
an  extent  the  training  of  his  hands  at  the  piano  may  have 
contributed  to  his  skill  as  an  artist. 

One  thing  is  certain,  however,  the  only  means  by  which 
complete  contol  of  both  hands  can  be  gained  is  the  piano. 
The  organ  and  harp  each  requires  the  use  of  both  hands, 
and  all  ten  fingers  ;  but  the  piano  alone  is  able  to  register 
those  infinitesimal  shades  of  expression  in  sound  which 
indicate  the  psychological  condition  of  the  player.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  touch  in  organ-playing,  because  it  is 
impossible  to  alter  the  tone  quality  in  an  organ,  whereas 
on  a  piano  the  trained  performer  registers  every  passing 
mood  through  his  finger-tips. 

Certainly,  no  one  who  expects  to  excel  as  a  performer 
ought  to  begin  later  than  ten  years  old.  As  to  the  length 
of  time  requisite  to  produce  a  good  player,  I  do  not  advo- 
cate more  than  three  hour's  practice  daily.  Provided 
there  are  force  and  lucidity  of  mind  in  the  teacher,  and  a 
concentration  of  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  pupil,  that 
amount  of  practice  can  safely  be  set  as  a  limit,  although 
many  students  work  from  five  to  seven  hours  a  day. 

A  great  deal  depends  upon  the  teacher,  for  a  first-class 
master  in  the  end  may  cost  less  than  one  whose  fees  are 
smaller.  The  experienced  teacher  often  makes  cross  cuts 
to  results  that  are  never  dreamed  of  in  the  philosophy  of 
the  smaller  members  of  the  profession.  The  best  players 


82  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

do  not  always  make  the  best  teachers,  especially  with 
young  pupils,  but  for  advanced  students  there  is  nothing 
to  take  the  place  of  the  inspiration  that  comes  from  an 
artist,  even  though  that  artist  may  have  retired  from 
active  service  as  a  performer. 

No  one  can  become  a  finished  musician  in  any  less  time 
than  is  required  to  become  a  fully  equipped  physician, 
lawyer,  literary  man  or  artist.  Each  year  the  examining 
boards  of  all  the  great  professional  schools  raise  the  stan- 
dard of  work  that  is  required  for  a  diploma,  and  it  is  the 
constant  raising  of  the  standard  that  is  eliminating  the 
poor  material  from  the  ranks  of  American  professional 
men.  It  is  the  same  with  music  and  musicians  ;  what 
was  considered  a  fine  musical  education  twenty  years 
ago  would  be  second-rate  to-day.  In  fact,  not  only 
concert  players,  but  teachers,  are  compelled  to  grow  in 
artistic  stature  from  season  to  season,  or  be  content  to  be 
left  behind  in  the  march  of  progress. 

As  far  as  methods  of  study  and  practice  are  concerned, 
I  am  committed  to  the  teaching  of  the  synthetic  method 
of  piano-playing.  The  cost  of  a  pianoforte  education  is 
governed  by  the  length  of  one's  purse.  It  is  a  good  plan 
for  a  student  of  limited  means  to  place  herself  in  the 
hands  of  an  eminent  teacher,  who  will  appoint  an  instruc- 
tor whose  work  can  be  supervised.  The  cost  of  such  a 
course  need  not  exceed  $100  a  season,  because  there  are 
so  many  talented  young  teachers  who  are  only  too  glad  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  of  working  under  the 
advice  of  their  own  teachers. 

Another  plan  is  for  the  student  to  join  some  of  the 
classes  held  by  such  men  as  Rafael  Joseffy,  Dr.  Mason 
and  Albert  Ross  Parsons,  each  of  whom  is  engaged,  more 
or  less,  in  critical  class  work. 

In  some  instances  students  have  been  known  to  attend 


PIANO  PLAYING.  ,S3 

the  courses  of  all  three  during  the  same  season,  and  the 
results  from  hearing  the  same  composition  treated  by  each 
master  have  been  most  inspiring.  This  form  of  work  has 
grown  in  popularity  during  the  last  few  years,  and  fills  a 
special  place.  Many  of  the  prominent  teachers  give 
scholarships  to  talented  pupils  for  the  sake  of  the  artistic 
results  that  can  be  achieved  with  such  pupils,  and  fre- 
quently the  names  of  the  most  successful  performers  upon 
school  and  college  programmes  are  those  of  pupils  whose 
education  is  given  them  gratuitously. 

With  regard  to  teaching,  I  believe  that  women  are  pre- 
eminently fitted  for  elementary  work,  because,  as  a  rule, 
they  understand  and  can  manage  children  better  than  men 
can,  and  are  much  more  patient.  Where  a  woman  stands 
in  the  front  rank  of  artists  there  is  no  reason  why  she 
should  not  do  exactly  as  good  work  with  advanced  pupils 
as  a  man  does.  Out  of  the  scores  of  teachers  to  whom  it 
has  been  my  privilege  to  explain  the  synthetic  method, 
the  best  all-round  work  that  has  been  displayed  came 
from  the  pupils  of  a  woman  teacher. 

I  am  sometimes  asked  why  so  few  women  hold  organ 
positions.  The  last  issue  of  "  The  Church  Choir  Directory  " 
gives  the  number  of  organists  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn 
as  398,  out  of  which  88  are  women.  Probably  nine  out  of 
every  ten  organists  of  either  sex  are  amateurs,  who  have 
undertaken  to  play  in  church  on  the  strength  of  possess- 
ing a  more  or  less  limited  knowledge  of  the  piano. 

Of  the  women  who  hold  or  have  held  prominent  posi- 
tions there  are  Mrs.  Charlotte  Wells  Sanger,  Miss  Harriett 
B.  Judd,  Miss  Josephine  Losee,  Miss  Kate  Stella  Burr,  and 
formerly  there  were  Mrs.  Christopher  and  Miss  Augusta 
Lowell,  all  of  whom  have  been  able  to  hold  their  high 
places  because  of  their  thorough  work. 

Comparatively   few   of    the  churches,   outside   of    the 


84  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Episcopal  ones,  with  boy  choirs,  have   trained  musicians 
at  the  organ. 

So  far  as  I  know,  the  salaries  of  piano  teachers  in 
boarding-schools  range  from  $300  to  $1,200  a  year.  Where 
teachers  residing  in  New  York  go  out  of  town  to  schools 
the  fees  are  larger  in  proportion,  ranging  from  $10  to  $15 
a  day.  The  smallest  salary  I  have  ever  heard  of  was  $150, 
offered  by  a  fashionable  New  York  school  for  a  season  of 
thirty-four  weeks,  with  twenty-four  hours  of  instruction 
to  be  given  in  each  week,  making  an  average  of  about 
19  cents  an  hour.  It  was  impossible  to  secure  any  one  to 
teach  in  a  day  school  at  that  figure. 

Good  private  lessons,  from  conscientious,  painstaking 
young  teachers,  can  be  had  in  New  York  for  as  little  as 
$i  an  hour,  occasionally  for  less,  and  fees  range  all  the 
way  from  that  price  up  to  $12. 

KATE  S.  CHITTENDEN. 


THE  TUNING  OF  PIANOS. 

PIANO  tuning  is  quite  a  different  matter  from  piano 
playing ;  and  the  fine  musician  is  quite  apt  to  look  on 
this  humble  branch  of  the  art  of  evoking  sweet  sounds 
from  a  popular  instrument  as  lying  more  within  the 
domain  of  the  mechanical  than  the  artistic.  It  requires, 
however,  the  same  acute  sense  of  harmony  and  concord 
and  at  least  a  smattering  of  the  art  of  playing  the  piano. 
In  some  American  music  schools  tuning  is  now  taught 
to  women,  and  when  one  considers  the  vast  number  of 
pianos  whicti  are  to  be  found  in  every  township,  hamlet 
and  city  in  the  United  States,  one  will  readily  see  that  the 
field  for  this  class  of  work  is  virtually  unlimited.  Abroad, 
especially  in  England,  there  are  many  women  tuners. 


PIANO  PLAYING.  85 

In  factories  it  is  probable  that  men  will  hold  the 
ground  for  many  years  to  come,  because  tuning  calls  for 
some  muscular  strength  ;  and  when  a  person  is  employed 
in  this  branch  of  work  all  day  the  ability  to  withstand 
fatigue  is  a  factor  of  consequence.  Tuners  who  are 
employed  by  the  week  receive  from  $15  to  $25,  and  even 
larger  salaries.  Those  who  go  to  the  houses  of  the  owners 
of  pianos  and  put  the  instruments  in  order  there  receive 
from  $1.50  to  $2.50  for  each  piano  tuned. 

The  art  of  tuning  is  easily  learned  by  any  one  who  has 
an  ear  for  concord  and  harmony.  Many  an  amateur 
pianist  has  learned  it  simply  for  the  pleasure  involved, 
and  has  tuned  the  family  piano  with  perfect  success  for 
years.  The  few  implements  required  can  be  bought  for 
a  trifle  at  any  piano  store.  Manuals  can  be  bought 
which  explain  the  whole  matter. 


DOES  PIANO  STUDY  PAY? 

Good  Prices  for  Good  Pianists. — Private  Teaching  May  Win 
a  Good  Support. — Soloists  and  Accompanists  Do  Better. 

DOES  piano  study  pay  for  woman  ?  If  she  makes  music 
her  life  study,  yes  !  In  the  first  place,  no  musician  can 
be  such  in  the  fullest  sense  without  at  least  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  piano  ;  and  if,  later,  a  woman  desires  to 
make  a  special  study  of  another  instrument,  or  of  the 
voice,  she  will  find  her  piano  work,  if  it  has  been  of  the 
right  kind,  a  most  material  aid.  It  is  a  fact  that  there 
are  comparatively  few  world-renowned  pianists.  Yet  the 
profession  is  a  broad  one,  and  provided  that  a  woman  has 
a  thorough  musical  education,  she  may  earn  her  living 
aside  from  being  a  soloist. 


86  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

As  to  the  highest  price  paid  to  any  pianist,  Mr.  Pade- 
rewski,  in  one  of  his  Chicago  matinees,  took  in  about 
$7,000.  This  is,  of  course,  an  exceptional  case. 

The  most  celebrated  pianists  under  salary  to  a  manager 
have  been  paid  in  many  cases  as  much  as  $500  for  one 
concert,  and  $700  in  one  special  instance,  although  usually 
money  is  lost  in  paying  such  prices.  The  average  pianist 
gets  about  $150  to  $200  a  concert. 

Accompanists  get  $25  and  under,  according  to  how 
much  they  have  to  do  and  how  well  they  can  do  it. 

"  Ensemble  work  "  pays  from  $50  to  $100  a  perform- 
ance, according  to  the  artist. 

That  which  is  all  around  the  most  satisfactory,  aside 
from  solo  work,  is  teaching.  While  teaching  is  at  times 
uninteresting,  there  is  much  that  is  pleasant  in  the  life  of 
a  successful  teacher.  To  watch  the  progress  of  a  bright 
student  gives  immense  satisfaction,  and  there  is  a  sense 
of  unity  between  teacher  and  pupil  when  they  really  work 
together.  Every  true  educator  must  maintain  an  artistic 
ideal  not  only  for  herself,  but  as  well  for  her  pupil.  If 
she  will  succeed,  she  must  not  only  correct  faults  and  bad 
habits,  but  must  inspire  those  who  study  under  her  with 
the  ambition  to  live  up  to  that  ideal.  Personal  magnetism 
is  as  much  a  necessity  in  the  teacher  as  in  the  soloist,  and 
every  musician  knows  that  an  artist  who  cannot  make  his 
audience  feel  with  him  is  a  failure. 

With  very  few  exceptions  private  teaching  pays  better 
than  that  done  in  any  institution.  In  the  latter  about 
the  highest  prices  generally  paid  women  are  from 
$1,500  to  $1,800  a  year.  Men  receive  somewhat  higher 
salaries,  while  in  private  teaching  prices  range  anywhere 
from  $T  to  $6  an  hour.  If  she  is  competent  and  not  in 
absolute  need  of  money,  it  is  far  better  for  a  girl  to  wait 
for  pupils  than  to  teach  at  low  rates.  If  she  cheapens 


PIANO  PLAYING.  87 

her  services  she  will  find  it  difficult  to   raise  her  terms 
later. 

It  is  rare  to  reach  prominence  as  a  soloist  unless  study 
is  begun  early  in  life,  not  only  because  of  the  technical 
proficiency  which  must  be  acquired,  but  the  enormous 
repertory  one  must  possess  to  be  a  pianist  of  the  first 
rank.  Piano  literature  is  unlimited,  and  years  of  hard 
and  patient  study  combined  with  God-given  talent  are 
required  to  become  a  virtuoso.  Parents  should  remember 
this  if  they  have  such  aspirations  for  their  children,  and 
should  start  them  at  least  as  early  as  eight  or  nine  years 
of  age.  As  a  technician,  the  American  girl  develops 
more  rapidly  than  the  girl  of  any  other  country,  while 
in  phrasing  and  general  musical  conception  she  is  often 
eclipsed  by  her  foreign  sisters. 

If  you  have  your  own  plans  to  make  for  the  future, 
study  with  one  who  creates  in  you  an  ambition  to  bring 
out  your  very  best  efforts.  You  may  be  sure  that  no 
conscientious  teacher  will  hesitate  to  criticise  when  the 
occasion  requires  it.  At  the  same  time  hear  all  the  good 
music  you  possibly  can.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest 
sources  of  musical  education,  and,  by  the  way,  much  of 
the  very  best  music  is  never  given  to  the  public  at  all. 

If  at  any  time  in  your  life  you  are  fortunate  enough  to 
receive  instruction  from  a  great  master  drop  all  else  and 
work.  It  is  an  impossibility  to  combine  teaching  or  any 
other  outside  occupation  with  piano  virtuoso  study. 
The  artist  teacher  will  demand  at  least  four  or  five  hours 
a  day  for  methodical  practice.  Nothing  can  be  accom- 
plished in  any  line  without  good  health,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  outdoor  exercise  and  regular  hours  for  sleep 
are  absolute  necessities  for  the  student. 

As  regards  the  time  it  takes  to  become  a  teacher,  this 
varies  with  the  individual  ;  but  unless,  as  I  have  said,  one 


88  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

has  opportunities  to  work  under  a  great  artist,  in  which 
case  everything  must  yield  to  study,  it  is  well  to  give  a 
few  lessons  all  the  time  in  order  to  gain  experience. 
When  one  first  begins  to  teach  there  is  a  certain  newness 
about  it  all  which  is  embarrassing,  but  this  by  degrees 
wears  away  until  at  last  it  is  perfectly  natural  to  impart 
what  we  wish  to  make  clear.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to 
attempt  too  many  things  at  once.  It  is  equally  so  to 
endeavour  to  explain  to  another  anything  with  which  you 
are  not  perfectly  familiar.  Find  out  what  you  can  do 
best,  adhere  strictly  to  it,  work  with  obstinate  resolution, 
and  you  will  not  fail.  A  woman  easily  discouraged 
should  never  enter  the  professional  world,  for  she  will 
encounter  many  difficulties  and  disappointments  before 
her  hopes  are  realised.  Faithful  perseverance,  however, 
is  almost  always  rewarded  at  last.  It  is  the  woman  really 
in  earnest  who  commands  the  respect  of  those  with  whom 
she  comes  in  contact.  She  makes  friends  of  the  right 
class  and  holds  them,  which  means  much  to  her  who  is 
about  to  enter  upon  a  musical  career. 

Speaking  from  a  financial  point  of  view,  a  woman  must, 
of  course,  possess  some  business  capacity  in  order  to 
make  money,  but  the  artist  loves  her  art,  and  if  she  be 
truly  wedded  to  it  it  will  not  forsake  her  in  the  end. 

MlLTONELLA  BEARDSLEY. 


PLAYING  AND  TEACHING. 

Suggestions  by  a  Specialist  in  Piano  Technique,  Well  Known  in 
Chicago  and  New  York  City. 

TEACHING  and  playing  the  piano  seem  to  be  two  dis- 
tinct   branches.     Many    skilled     pianists    are    unskilled 


PIANO  PLAYING.  89 

teachers.  They  seem  powerless  to  impart  what  is  at 
their  finger-ends.  Why  is  that  ? 

First,  a  teacher  should  be  trained  to  teach,  or  at  least 
know  why  certain  causes  produce  certain  effects. 

Second,  piano  teaching  should  be  divided  into  different 
departments.  The  training  of  muscles-  for  technique  is 
quite  different  from  training  for  tone  or  tonal  effect,  and 
both  are  much  less  confusing  to  the  student  when  studied 
separately.  We  do  not  need  our  ears,  but  we  do  need 
our  eyes  to  see  if  fingers  act  properly,  and  we  all  know 
that  good  technique  is  the  bottom  plank  of  artistic  play- 
ing. As  well  give  a  hatchet  to  the  sculptor  and  com- 
mand him  to  chisel  with  it  a  Venus  de  Medici  as  expect 
clumsy  fingers  to  execute  a  Chopin  nocturne. 

Let  us  renew  the  ordinary  music  lesson.  Teachers, 
pupil,  keyboard  and  instructor's  book  are  all  thrown 
together.  The  child  is,  told  that  C  is  in  such  a  place  on 
the  keyboard  and  a  corresponding  C  on  the  music  scroll  ; 
that  the  hand  must  be  held  in  position,  the  fingers  must 
be  supple,  time  kept — in  fact,  eyes  and  ears  everywhere 
until  the  brain  is  tired  out  and  the  entire  body  under  such 
a  tension  that  free  and  independent  movements  are 
impossible. 

Of  course,  all  of  these  things  must  be  learned,  but  to 
do  intelligent  work  each  branch  ought  to  be  taught  sepa- 
rately, and  as  technique,  or  the  mechanical  part,  requires 
the  most  time  and  labour,  the  teacher's  thoughts  should 
be  directed  to  this  branch  first. 

I  find  from  my  experience  pupils  are  more  easily 
interested  in  thus  dividing  the  hard  work. 

The  teacher  who  can  interest  the  pupil  and  make  a 
player  of  him  can  command  any  price.  Klondike  is  at 
her  door.  Then,  too,  the  piano  is  especially  a  commercial 
instrument.  Unlike  the  violin  and  other  stringed  instru- 


90  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ments,  its  tones  are  formed,  making  it  accessible  to  peo- 
ple without  musical  ears.  No  education  is  complete 
without  some  musical  knowledge.  Therefore,  I  fail  to 
see  why  woman  has  not  at  her  service  all  she  is  capable 
of  commanding  in  this  field. 

M.  AUGUSTA  BOSWORTH. 


LITERARY  MUSICALE. 

Mrs.   Alexander  and  Miss    West. — Two   Charming   Women 
Who  Have  Come  into  Prominence. 

AMONG  the  many  artists  who  are  doing  sincere  and 
worthy  work  this  winter  in  New  York  City  are  Mrs. 
Stella  Hadden-Alexander  and  Miss  Emma  Elise  West. 

Mrs.  Hadden-Alexander  is  a  pianist  who  has  gained 
reputation  abroad,  and  this  has  been  greatly  increased 
since  her  return  to  America.  Her  power  of  interpreta- 
tion is  remarkable,  while  brilliancy  of  technique  and 
warmth  of  tone  colour  vitalize  all  her  interpretations. 
In  sweep  and  power  her  strong  passages  are  masculine 
rather  than  feminine.  The  great  charm  of  her  playing 
and  that  which  distinguishes  it  from  the  work  of  most 
women  pianists,  is  its  power  to  make  the  listener  think. 
Beneath  her  touch  the  piano  become  a  living,  talking  per- 
sonality. The  character  of  the  woman  is  felt  in  every 
note — sympathetic,  tender  and  intellectual.  Whether  she 
brings  us  the  old  masters  or  the  American  composers  who 
have  won  their  laurels,  she  never  fails  to  reveal  the  musi- 
cal idea  in  the  clearest  possible  form. 

Miss  West  has  become  known  as  a  reader  of  original 
New  York  society  sketches  and  an  interpreter  of  Robert 
Browning,  Rudyard  Kipling  and  other  rare  minds.  These 
two  lines  of  work,  which  differ  so  widely,  are  handled 


PIANO  PLAYING.  91 

with  rare  skill  by  Miss  West.  She  presents  the  thing  it- 
self with  a  simplicity  and  directness  most  refreshing. 
Her  sense  of  humour  is  keen  and  her  perception  is  deli- 
cate, without  detracting  from  a  certain  passionate  strength 
which  lends  vividness  to  everything  she  does.  She  pos- 
sesses that  gift  so  common  to  American  girls  and  so 
uncommon  to  girls  of  any  other  nationality,  namely,  the 
ability  to  grasp  at  once  the  essential  points  of  a  character 
and  really  be  for  the  time  being  the  person  represented. 

Mrs.  Alexander  and  Miss  West  have  arranged  several 
programmes,  in  which  they  appear  both  alone  and  together. 
Two  of  the  most  effective  numbers  are  a  dainty  prose 
poem  by  Eugene  Field,  which  Mrs.  Alexander  accom- 
panies with  exquisite  woodland  music,  and  a  thrilling  scene 
in  the  life  of  a  famous  violinist,  the  story  of  which  is  told 
in  words  and  tones. 

These  gifted  women  contemplate  a  professional  tour  in 
the  spring  of  1899  throughout  the  West.  Their  pro- 
grammes give  peculiar  intellectual  pleasure  to  drawing- 
room  and  club  entertainments.  They  are  favourites  in 
many  homes  of  the  choicest  people  in  New  York  City. 
Both  are  residents  of  New  York  City,  Mrs.  Alexander's 
studio  being  at  No.  7  West  Sixty-fifth  St.,  while  Miss 
West  resides  at  No.  142  West  One  Hundred  and  Fifth  St. 


ANYING  A3  AN  ART. 

Miss  Isabel  McCatfs    School.     Accompanists  i.i  Demand  c.t 

Excellent  Remuneration.     A  Branri  cf  ill?  Art 

Which  Is  Too  Much  Neglected. 

AN  erroneous  impression  prevails  in  this  country  that 
a  musical  career  opens  for  women  in  the  direction  of  two 


92  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

avenues  only,  and  that  through  these  alone  may  she  hope 
to  win  fame  and  fortune,  namely,  the  professions  of  singer 
or  instrumentalist,  i.  e.,  organist,  violinist  or  pianist. 

The  latter  has  been  naturally  supposed  to  include  the 
middle  ground  of  accompanying.  No  greater  error  can 
be  conceived.  The  art  of  accompanying  is  quite  distinct 
from  either  vocalism  or  the  usual  skill  of  a  pianist.  One 
may  be  a  Paderewski,  a  Rosenthal  or  a  Fanny  Bloomfield 
Zeisler,  and  yet  be  unable  to  fill  satisfactorily  what  might 
to  the  uninitiated  seem  the  subordinate  position  of  an  ac- 
companist. A  truly  skilled  vocalist,  however,  man  or 
woman,  would  readily  and  gracefully  acknowledge  his  or 
her  dependence  upon  the  one  who  fills  this  most  responsi- 
ble position.  If  more  accompanists  could  feel  this  sense 
of  responsibility,  and,  while  carefully  refraining  from 
over-asserting  themselves,  make  the  singer  realise  their 
valuable  support,  the  art  would  be  more  readily  and  fully 
recognised. 

It  is  an  astonishing  fact  that  among  the  hundreds  of 
musicians  whose  advertisements  are  found  in  the  musical 
periodicals  and  in  the  daily  papers,  only  two,  or  at  the 
most  three,  are  professional  accompanists.  It  was  this 
fact,  as  well  as  the  extreme  difficulty  experienced  in 
obtaining  proper  substitutes  in  studio  or  concert  work, 
which  inspired  Miss  Isabel  McCall,  an  accomplished 
musician,  with  the  idea  of  founding  a  school  of  accompany- 
ing in  New  York  City,  the  first  of  its  kind  in  this  country. 

Entered  upon  with  fear  and  trembling,  the  experiment 
has  proved  a  success  nevertheless,  far  exceeding  the 
fondest  hopes  of  the  originator.  In  less  than  eight 
months  the  school  has  so  far  outgrown  all  expectations  as 
to  require  Miss  McCall's  removal  to  more  spacious  quar- 
ters at  No.  251  Fifth  Avenue. 

Miss  McCall  ranks  among  the  finest  accompanists  in 


PIANO  PLAYING.  93 

New  York,  and  for  the  past  ten  years  has  filled  positions 
as  studio  accompanist  for  several  of  the  foremost  vocal 
teachers  in  the  metropolis,  besides  being  in  great  demand 
for  concerts  and  musicals. 

When  one  considers  for  a  moment  how  many  well- 
taught  pianists  are  forced  almost  to  beg  for  pupils,  at  a 
small  remuneration,  one  can  appreciate  the  necessity  of 
their  adding  to  the  skill  already  obtained  that  which  is 
required  in  a  good  accompanist.  The  demand  for  skillful 
accompanists  exceeds  the  supply  ;  and  the  remuneration 
paid  them  is  all  that  can  be  desired.  The  course  at  the 
school  of  accompanying  consists  of  twenty  lessons,  by 
which  one  is  fitted  for  studio  work,  where  experience  per- 
fects by  practice. 

It  must  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  any  one  who  can 
perform  acceptably  a  few  pieces  upon  the  piano  may,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  become  an  acceptable  accompanist.  By 
no  means.  Delicacy  of  touch,  a  keen  feeling  for  music, 
and  power  of  expression,  as  well  as  sight  reading,  are  all 
prerequisites  for  the  student.  To  these  qualifications  add 
perseverance  and  energy,  rightly  directed,  and  success  is 
assured. 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION. 

SHE  PLANS  NEW  BUILDINGS. 

How  a  Girl  May  Learn  To  Be  an  Architect. — A  Course  in  a 

Good  Technical  School  Needed,  If  One  Has  Hopes  of 

Eventually  Doing  Good  Independent  Work. 

THE  woman  desirous  of  becoming  a  practical,  bread- 
winning  architect  can  find  no  better,  surer  training  than  is 
to  be  had  in  a  good  architectural  school.  When  I  first 
became  imbued  with  the  idea  of  adopting  architecture  as 
a  profession,  there  was  no  school  in  New  York  where  a 
woman  could  study  the  art.  The  Young  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association  had  an  elementary  course,  which  I  fol- 
lowed with  profit.  I  believe  it  is  still  maintained,  free,  or 
at  a  very  nominal  cost  to  the  student.  Two  years  later, 
the  New  York  School  of  Applied  Design  for  Women 
opened,  and  I  applied  for  admission.  So  good  was  the 
preliminary  training  that  I  had  received  in  drawing  and 
design  at  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  that 
I  passed  the  elementary  examination  and  was  admitted  at 
once  to  the  architectural  department,  where  I  remained 
two  years,  completing  the  most  practical  course  under 
the  most  competent  instructors — practical  architects. 

The  course  has  since  been  increased,  until  at  present  it 
covers  three  years.  The  study  of  the  historical  ornament 
as  conducted  at  this  school  is  invaluable.  Knowledge  of 
historical  ornament  is  to  design  what  knowledge  of  archi- 
tecture is  to  interior  decoration.  To  make  original  designs 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.         95 

one  must  know  what  has  been  done  throughout  the  ages. 
This  is  impossible  without  systematic  study  of  the  arts  of 
various  countries  and  periods,  under  enlightened  direc- 
tion. Now,  the  woman  who  enters  an  architect's  office 
without  this  training  will  be  put  to  tracing,  and  if  she 
shows  special  aptitude  her  employer  will  keep  her  tracing 
to  the  end  of  her  days.  Good  tracers  are  not  plentiful, 
and  when  a  firm  secures  one  it  is  likely  to  cling  to  her,  to 
its  own  profit  and  the  woman  aspirant's  detriment,  so  far 
as  professional  advancement  is  concerned. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  woman  who  has  completed  a 
course  of  training  in  a  good  school  can  scarcely  do  better 
than  to  enter  an  architect's  office.  She  will  have  to  begin 
at  tracing,  as  does  the  woman  who  has  had  no  scholastic 
training.  But  she  will  work  more  intelligently.  She 
will  have  a  background  of  knowledge  that  will  make  her 
invaluable  to  a  firm.  She  will  have  an  opportunity  to 
assert  her  individuality,  and  if  she  is  ambitious,  tracing 
will  soon  be  left  in  the  background,  and  she  will  find  her- 
self consulted  and  deferred  to  in  the  most  important  mat- 
ters. 

Time  spent  in  a  good  school,  I  think,  is  time  well  spent. 
Tuition  at  the  New  York  school  is  $80  a  year,  or  $240  for 
the  complete  course.  Board  and  lodging  at  reasonable 
rates  are  to  be  had  in  the  neighbourhood,  while  the  city 
affords  inexhaustible  opportunity  for  self-education. 
Unlike  students  of  design,  there  are  few  if  any  opportuni- 
ties for  the  architectural  student  to  earn  money  while 
pursuing  the  course.  There  is  an  immense  unworked 
field  for  women  in  architecture,  especially  in  the  planning 
of  dwellings.  No  one  is  quicker  to  acknowledge  the  fact 
than  an  intelligent  man. 

After  a  woman  has  secured  technical  training,  there 
is  no  better  opening  wedge  to  the  money-making  world 


96  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

than  to  become  identified  in  some  way  with  a  well-estab- 
lished architectural  firm.  Soon  after  I  finished  my  course 
at  school  Miss  Gannon,  my  present  partner  and  class- 
mate, and  myself  were  employed  in  competitive  work, 
entered  into  by  two  well-known  architects.  As  the  latter 
were  employed  during  the  day  by  one  of  the  largest  firms 
in  the  city,  the  competitive  work  was  left  almost  wholly 
to  us.  So  largely  were  our  suggestions  accepted  and  so 
much  of  the  work  was  practically  ours  that  we  decided 
after  three  out  of  the  five  plans  we  had  worked  out  were 
awarded  prizes,  that  instead  of  spending  our  time  and 
energy  working  for  others  without  receiving  outside  credit 
we  would  constitute  ourselves  a  firm  for  independent 
work. 

This  was  four  years  ago.  Since  then  the  men  for  whom 
we  did  the  competitive  work  have  formed  a  partnership, 
and  we  continue  to  work  with  them,  yet  are  independent 
of  them.  We  supplemented  each  other.  There  is  much 
that  we  could  not  do  without  them,  and  they  often  find  us 
invaluable.  It  is  a  most  happy  and  profitable  arrange- 
ment, and  it  seems  to  me  a  generally  desirable  one  for  the 
woman  architect. 

Our  first  work  as  partners  was  the  planning  of  a  sani- 
tarium in  San  Francisco.  One  of  the  best-known  physi- 
cians of  New  York,  who  has  a  sanitarium  in  his  own  house, 
said  if  ever  he  built  an  institution  of  that  kind  he  wanted 
it  to  be  a  fac-simile  of  the  San  Francisco  building.  A 
cottage  and  two  residences  in  Twilight  Park  followed, 
but  our  great  work,  upon  which  we  have  expended  more 
than  two  years'  study,  is  a  model  tenement-house,  for 
which  ground  was  broken  October  i,  in  West  Sixty-sev- 
enth St. 

How  to  erect  two  buildings,  five  stories  high,  each  to 
accommodate  fifteen  families,  on  a  city  lot  25  by  100  feet 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.          97 

was  a  problem  not  easy  to  solve.  We  spent  two  years  in 
preparatory  work,  work  which  women  are  prone  to  shirk 
or  overlook  when  they  contemplate  architecture  as  a 
means  of  livelihood.  We  visited  all  the  down-town  tene- 
ments. We  studied  every  detail  of  existing  conditions, 
talked  with  the  tenants,  learned  what  were  their  objec- 
tions and  what  they  would  suggest  to  promote  better  liv- 
ing. The  University  Settlement  men  were  of  much  assist- 
ance in  our  study. 

We  competed  for  the  Woman's  Building  at  the  Atlanta 
Exhibition,  but  the  award  was  made  before  our  plans 
arrived.  Effort  was  made  to  reconsider  the  decision  in 
our  behalf,  but  professional  etiquette  would  not  permit 
us  to  consent  to  that.  As  individuals  and  as  a  firm,  we 
have  had  every  possible  assistance  and  encourage- 
ment from  brother  architects.  They  often  go  out  of 
their  way  to  lend  a  helping  hand.  In  planning  a  dwell- 
ing I  have  often  observed  that  the  cleverest  architects 
are  given  to  sacrificing  utility  to  harmony  of  design. 
This  is  an  error  that  I  think  few  women  would  make. 
Their  familiarity  with  the  requirements  of  a  home  makes 
them  exceedingly  practical.  I  recall  a  discussion  once  at 
school  between  an  instructor  and  pupil  &  propos  to  a 
cellarway.  The  girl  protested  that  the  stair  was  too 
narrow  for  comfort  or  safety,  and  in  her  design  she 
enlarged  it. 

"  But  can't  you  see,"  said  the  instructor,  "  that  in  en- 
larging the  step  you  spoil  the  harmony  of  the  design  ? " 

"  Put  a  fat  cook  on  the  step  as  you  would  have  it," 
replied  the  girl.  "  Then  consider  the  harmony  of  the 
cook." 

As  usual,  the  woman  had  the  last  word  ! 

ALICE  J.  HANDS. 


98  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

COMPENSATION  OF  ARCHITECTS. 

AN  architect  receives,  for  designs  and  superintendence 
of  construction,  5  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  a  building,  as  a 
rule.  The  rate  varies  from  2\  per  cent,  to  10,  however, 
with  the  size  of  the  building  or  the  alterations,  whatever 
they  are. 

The  assistants  of  an  architect  are  mainly  draughtsmen, 
who  earn  about  $15  a  week,  the  chief  draughtsman  get- 
ting from  $30  to  $50,  according  to  his  value. 

Beginners  have  sometimes  paid  an  architect  for  the 
privilege  of  learning  the  business  in  his  office.  There  are 
cases  where  $500  has  been  paid.  After  a  time,  the 
learner  is  given  a  small  salary,  and  the  compensation 
increases  step  by  step  with  his  abilities.  This  form  of 
apprenticeship  is  now  dying  out.  Beginners  are  gener- 
ally students  from  technical  schools,  or  lawyers'  clerks 
who  wish  to  earn  a  little  money  while  studying  law.  The 
latter  earn  from  $6  to  $10  a  week. 

The  best  skill  in  draughting  is  shown  in  perspective 
work.  This  is  not  always  done  in  an  architect's  office,  as 
there  are  artists  who  do  this  work  by  the  piece.  Another 
branch  of  skilled  work  is  the  colouring  of  perspective 
drawings,  and  this  gives  employment  to  a  special  few 
artists,  who  receive  a  lump  sum  for  each  piece  of  work. 


MAKING  HOMES  BEAUTIFUL. 

Suggestions  by  One  Who  Has  Found  This  a  Money-Earning 

Occupation. — Household  Architecture  and  Decoration 

Worthy  of  a  Woman  s  Long  and  Patient  Study. — 

No  Success  Without  Such  Study. 

THE  present  outlook  for  women  in  household  architec- 
ture and  decoration  is,  I  think,  extremely  good.     Ameri- 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.          99 

cans  are  awakening  to  intelligent  recognition  of  its 
necessity  and  possibility.  Women  know  as  well  as,  if  not 
better  than,  men  what  a  home  requires  to  enhance  its 
comfort  and  its  beauty. 

The  woman  who  aspires  to  be  a  professional  interior 
architect  and  decorator  should  have  liberal  education 
and  wide  knowledge  of  the  world.  The  latter  is  abso- 
lutely essential,  since  the  decorator  must  be  able  to  ascer- 
tain the  taste,  purse  and  social  surroundings  of  her 
clients  in  order  properly  to  express  their  individuality  ; 
and  this  is  impossible  unless  she  has  had  her  eyes  opened 
by  travel  and  contact  with  the  world's  best  art. 

An  erroneous  impression  prevails  among  both  artists 
and  laymen  that  household  decoration  is  confined  to  the 
hanging  of  draperies,  the  upholstering  of  a  divan  and  the 
arrangement  of  silk  pillows,  etc.  Unhappily,  this  super- 
ficial understanding  of  the  art  leads  not  a  few  women 
into  the  field,  where,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  are  wo- 
men, they  appeal  to  the  sympathy  of  those  who  wish  to 
help  them,  and  who — their  knowledge  of  real  artistic 
work  being  equally  limited — accept  what  is  offered  un- 
questioningly,  and  pay  well  for  the  same. 

Thorough  and  practical  training  in  architecture  is  the 
foundation  of  artistic  household  decoration.  Without  it 
no  woman  or  man — there  is  no  sex  in  art — can  hope  to 
become  an  intelligent  artistic  decorator.  Architecture  is 
the  first  step  preparatory  to  the  study  of  interior  decora- 
tion. If  a  woman  cannot  begin  by  apprenticeship  in  an 
architect's  office,  let  her  enter  a  school  strong  in  that 
branch  of  art.  Reading  and  observation  must  supple- 
ment this  technical  training. 

The  literature  of  art  is  not  taught  in  this  country. 
There  are  a  few  artists  who  have  studied  abroad,  had 
their  attention  roused,  and  finally  taken  up  a  systematic 


ioo  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

course  of  reading.  I  have  often  wished  that  some  one 
would  awaken  our  art  schools  and  teachers  to  this 
lamentable  defect  in  the  student's  curriculum.  Our 
museums  and  libraries  are  well  stocked  in  the  best  art 
literature.  Nowhere  in  this  country  can  a  student  study 
to  better  advantage  or  at  less  expense  than  in  New  York. 

Feeling  for  colour  is  of  paramount  importance.  It  is 
born,  and  cannot  be  attained,  save  in  a  limited  degree. 
The  decorator  must  know  not  only  the  artistic  but  the 
commercial  value  of  every  kind  of  material  involved  in  an 
interior  decoration.  Details  of  the  cost  of  wall  paper, 
materials  for  wall  hangings  and  draperies  and  the  amount 
possibilities  of  change  in  designs,  colours  or  style  must  be 
at  her  command.  Of  course  textile  fabrics  in  design, 
colour  and  texture  vary  every  year  ;  still,  there  are  certain 
defined  principles  that  underlie  the  whole. 

The  household  decorator  must  be  a  mathematician. 
Close  calculation  as  well  as  knowledge  of  weights  and 
measures  enter  largely  into  the  work.  Executive  ability 
and  common-sense  are  also  essential  supplements  to 
artistic  sense  and  technical  training. 

I  was  once  asked  by  a  young  woman  of  no  little  taste 
and  talent  if  I  did  not  think  that  she  could  do  as  good 
work  as  I  and  make  lots  of  money. 

"  If  you  are  willing  to  enter  an  architect's  office  and 
work  eight  hours  a  day  for  a  couple  of  years  I  think  you 
might  succeed,"  I  replied.  A  cry  of  protest  met  the 
proposition. 

"  I  never  could  do  such  a  stupid  thing  and  waste  so 
much  time.  Work  eight  hours  a  day  !  Impossible  !  " 

The  decorator  must  not  only  work  eight  hours  a  day, 
but  every  moment,  in  thought  or  deed,  if  she  has  her  art 
at  heart.  I  find  that  the  stumbling-block  to  women  is 
their  unwillingness  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  things.  They 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.        101 

shrink  from  paying  the  price  of  hard  study.  They  look 
only  to  the  high  lights,  the  finished  picture.  The  master- 
ing of  the  decorator's  art  is  in  a  way  an  anti-climax. 

Success  requires  knowledge  of  the  various  trades  that 
go  to  the  erection  of  a  house.  It  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  keep  up  to  date  in  plumbing,  lighting,  electricity  and 
heating.  Heating  and  lighting  are  now  most  important 
subjects.  The  decorator  should  know  everything  per- 
taining to  the  construction  of  a  dwelling-house  from 
cellar,  laundry  and  kitchen  to  bath-room  and  attic  ;  the 
varieties  of  woods  used  for  floors,  their  durability  and 
price  ;  likewise  the  varieties  and  prices  of  marbles ; 
whether  marble,  tile  or  stone  is  more  adaptable  or  cheaper 
for  a  certain  purpose.  All  these  apparently  prosaic  de- 
tails play  no  small  part  in  the  utility  of  the  decorator. 
The  more  of  this  commercial  information  she  possesses  the 
better  she  is  able  to  control  workmen  and  serve  her  client. 

When  it  comes  to  selection  of  fabrics  and  furniture  the 
decorator  must  know  the  latest  designs,  their  durability 
or  desirability,  cost  and  quantity  required,  so  that  close 
estimates  can  be  made  and  satisfactory  results  attained. 
Make  yourself  familiar  with  the  quality,  design  and  price 
of  every  material  that  enters  into  the  interior  decoration 
of  *a  house  and  ascertain  at  what  stores  they  are  to  be 
had.  Educate  yourself  in  these  important  matters.  New 
York  is  full  of  rich  and  curious  shops.  The  merchants 
are  always  ready  to  give  information,  particularly  when 
they  learn  that  the  inquisitor  is  a  student,  earnest  and 
intelligent. 

There  are  fine  marble  yards,  where  workmen  will  ex- 
plain the  differences  in  marbles.  Suppose  a  man  is  unde- 
cided whether  to  have  a  marble  or  stone  mantelpiece  in 
his  drawing-room.  The  decorator  should  be  able  to  tell 
which  material  is  the  more  desirable  for  that  particular 


102  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

house  or  room.  Some  marbles  and  woods  are  softer  than 
others,  and  yield  more  readily  to  carvings.  Now,  women 
rarely  know  these  things  ;  never  study  them,  and  do  not 
deem  it  essential. 

House  decoration  is  largely  a  side  issue  to  me,  but  one 
that  I  enjoy  immensely.  Few  in  this  country,  owing  to 
general  ignorance  of  the  history  of  art,  realise  how  largely 
art  has  always  entered  into  the  industries  of  the  world. 
If  this  fact  was  better  understood  by  students  who  come 
here  to  study,  struggle,  starve  or  despair,  in  the  effort  to 
paint  a  picture  to  be  hung  on  the  line,  there  would  be 
fewer  poor  artists  and  more  good  artisans. 

You  must  be  proud  of  your  work  and  dignify  the  small- 
est detail  of  it,  if  you  hope  to  succeed.  Shortly  after  the 
unveiling  of  my  window  in  Grace  Church,  one  of  the 
workmen  noticed  a  couple  of  young  girls  who  bore  the 
earmarks  of  art  students  studying  the  design  with  appar- 
ent enthusiasm. 

"  You  paint  on  glass  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Oh,  no,"  they  replied  in  an  injured  tone  ;  "  we  are 
artists." 

While  assisting  Mr.  La  Farge  in  the  decoration  of  Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt's  house  I  tried  to  help  along  two  strug- 
gling art  students  by  employing  them  to  work  on  some  of 
the  tapestries,  a  branch  of  art  that  invited  the  serious 
study  of  the  old  masters.  They  came  to  and  from  the 
studio  in  a  stealthy  manner,  as  if  ashamed  of  being  identi- 
fied with  the  work.  Their  ideal,  from  their  standpoint, 
was  infinitely  higher.  Vain  to  tell  them  that  Raphael  and 
Michael  Angelo  had  expended  some  of  their  most  precious 
time  and  genius  on  tapestries  that  are  still  the  delight  of 
the  world.  Subsequently  one  of  the  girls  married,  and 
when  I  met  her  at  a  reception  with  her  husband  she  asked 
me  never  to  mention  to  him  that  she  had  ever  worked  in 
my  studio  at  tapestry  embroidering ! 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.        103 

I  never  trust  the  mixing  of  paints  to  my  employees.  I 
see  to  every  colour  and  medium  that  goes  on  to  the  palette. 
The  decorator  must  know  the  different  ingredients  of  pig- 
ments. When  I  was  decorating  the  Savoy  Hotel  I  had 
more  than  sixty  men  under  my  supervision,  and  I  have 
just  completed  a  private  residence  a't  Madison,  N.  J., 
practically  reconstructing  the  entire  house  ;  supervising 
electric  bells,  electric  lighting  and  designing  plumbing 
fixtures — in  fact,  everything  that  underlies  and  precedes 
the  purely  decorative,  as  well  as  painting  and  the  final 
finished  decorations. 

Household  architecture  and  decoration  are  not  only 
interesting  throughout,  but  pay  well  ;  pay  better  than 
exterior  architectural  work.  Remuneration  is  to  be  had 
by  commission  and  contract.  I  work  on  both  bases.  I 
never  take  a  vacation  in  the  accepted  sense.  Change  of 
scene  in  pursuit  of  new  things  that  will  broaden  and  en- 
rich my  work  is  all  the  vacation  I  wish  or  require.  It  is 
impossible  for  me  to  tell  a  woman  in  detail  how  to  become 
a  decorator,  or  how  I  have  learned  the  art.  Given  nat- 
ural taste  and  desire,  with  determination  to  go  to  the 
foundation,  to  pay  the  price  of  knowledge  in  drudgery 
that  is  never  apparent,  there  is  no  reason  why  women 
should  not  occupy  largely  this  practically  unworked  field, 
which  increased  wealth  and  liberal  education  are  dailv 
broadening  throughout  the  country. 

MARY  TILLINGHAST. 


FASCINATING  AS  AN  ART. 

Women  May  Study  Wood-Carving  and  Find  It  Profitable — 

American  Woods  Are  Plastic  to  the  Worker  s  Tools. 

Orange  as  Smooth  as  Kid  and  Holly  Excellent. 

MRS.  G.  T.  DRENNAN,  in  an  article  on  "Wood-Carving 


ro4  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

for  Women,"  written  for  American  Homes,  says  that,  though 
not  a  practical  worker  herself  in  this  art,  its  beauty  and 
desirability  for  feminine  hands  have  forcibly  impressed 
themselves  upon  her,  and  she  adds  as  follows  : 

"  Wood-carving  is  a  fascinating  branch  of  art,  and  an 
industry  not  by  any  means  beyond  the  capacity  of  women. 
It  is  artistic,  useful  and  highly  remunerative,  embodying 
the  always  desirable  elements  in  any  industry  for  interest- 
ing the  mind,  occupying  the  hands  and  replenishing  the 
purse.  It  is  also  undoubtedly  one  of  the  first  and  fore- 
most industrial  arts  of  the  day. 

"Woods  differ  in  quality,  some  better  adapted  to  one 
branch,  some  to  another.  American  sylva  is  as  rich  as 
any  in  the  world,  and  for  all  artistic  handicraft  and  wood- 
carving  there  are  woods  as  beautiful  and  plastic  to  the 
carver's  tools  as  the  marble  to  the  sculptor's  chisel. 
Tupelo,  gum,  maple,  cherry,  orange,  holly,  walnut  and 
cedar  are  elegant  in  "grain  and  finish.  Maple  is  well 
adapted  to  staining  in  imitations  of  choice  originals,  as  it 
possesses  a  fine  grain.  Orange  wood  is  as  smooth  as 
French  kid,  and  of  an  exquisite  ivory  tint.  It  is  con- 
sidered better  than  the  English  limewood,  as  the  latter  is 
subject  to  the  attack  of  worms,  which  destroy  its  beauty. 

"  The  red  cedar  of  our  forests  is  one  of  the  finest  woods 
for  carving  ;  its  natural  colour  is  bright  and  its  durability 
great.  The  finest  cedars  in  the  world  are  /ound  in  the 
Southern  States,  and  immense  factories  are  employed  in 
cutting  cedar  stock  for  lead-pencils  \  to  the  ingenious 
wood-carver  the  smallest  branches  are  suitable. 

"When  the  discovery  of  ebony  first  took  place  in  France 
(or  rather  re-discovery),  it  created  such  a  furour  in  the 
artistic  world  that  the  art  of  furniture-making  was  styled 
'ebenisterie,'  whence  the  term  came  to  be  generally  used. 
Etony  had  been  known  to  the  ancients,  as  their  gods  and 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.        105 

statues  were  carved  therefrom.  Its  metal-like  hardness 
required  certain  kinds  of  tools  for  its  cutting,  and  the 
jet-black  surface  offers  a  background  for  the  most  beauti- 
ful and  intricate  inlaying  of  all  kinds  of  brilliant  mate- 
rials. The  famous  boule-work  of  the  French  is  of  ebony, 
inlaid  with  mother-of-pearl,  tortoise-shell  and  overlaid 
with  bronze.  It  received  its  name  from  the  artist,  Andre 
Charles  Boule,  who  was  the  most  skilful  cabinet-maker 
of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV,  and  whose  masterpieces  of  in- 
laid ebony  are  still  preserved  as  the  rarest  art  treasures. 
There  frequently  occur  variations  in  the  blackness  of 
ebony.  It  is  sometimes  streaked  with  dull  red,  like  old 
port  wine,  and  again  of  a  deep  purple  tint. 

"  Holly  native  to  our  Middle  and  Southern  States  is 
ivory  white,  firm,  smooth  and  beautifully  veined.  It  now 
rivals  the  once  exclusive  rosewood  for  piano  casings. 
Books  are  bound  in  holly,  and  for  parasol  and  umbrella 
handles  it  rivals  the  partridge  wood  of  Brazil.  Book 
covers  and  pianos  are  of  the  holly  in  its  natural  cream  or 
ivory  hue,  polished  or  varnished.  Carved  holly  wood  is 
most  beautiful  for  work-boxes,  writing-desks,  match-safes 
and  such  purposes. 

"  Rosewood  is  sold  by  weight,  as  it  is  extremely  resin- 
ous, and  upon  the  quality  of  resin  depends  the  richness  of 
its  colour  and  its  value.  Some  of  the  most  beautiful  speci- 
mens of  old-fashioned  furniture  in  the  world  are  of  carved 
rosewood. 

"The  Princess  of  Wales,  in  the  industrial  school  of 
Sandringham,  which  she  established  and  sustains,  gives 
special  prominence  to  wood-carving.  Specimens  of  the 
work  from  the  hands  of  the  maidens  under  tutelage  fre- 
quently command  high  prices,  and  are  exhibited  as  fine 
works  of  art.  The  use  of  burnt  wood  in  decoration,  an 
art  which  dates  from  mediaeval  times,  is  having  its  renas- 


io6  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

cence  in  this  country.  It  bids  fair  to  become  an  import- 
ant factor  in  the  artistic  finish  of  our  buildings,  public 
and  private.  Authorities  say  that  dry  woods,  free  from 
gummy  or  resinous  parts,  are  the  only  suitable  kinds.  The 
white  or  yellow  poplar  of  the  United  States  is  said  to  be 
well  suited  for  burnt-wood  designs.  Fine  results  are  ob- 
tained by  combining  harder,  darker  woods,  such  as  oak  or 
walnut,  that  impart  rich,  dark  tones  in  contrast  with  the 
lighter  poplar." 


GROWING  FIELDS  OF  WORK. 

FIGURES  are  cry  reading  to  most  people.  There  is 
probably  no  objection  to  saying  that  women  are  interested 
in  them,  on  the  whole,  the  least  of  anybody.  But  here 
are  a  few  figures  about  themselves  which  show  a  very  in- 
teresting tendency  of  the  times  in  which  we  live.  They 
should  be  printed  somewhere  in  this  work,  and  might  as 
well  be  given  here  as  elsewhere. 

In  1870,  that  is  to  say  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  of  all  the 
women  employed  in  America  in  the  struggle  for  a  living, 
not  quite  8  per  cent,  were  enrolled  in  what  may  be  called 
the  proprietor  classes,  such  as  farmers,  merchants,  bank- 
ers and  professional  people.  What  the  exact  proportion 
is  now  cannot  be  told  until  the  census  of  1900  is  taken. 
But  in  1890  they  constituted  over  16  per  cent,  of  all  the 
women  at  work,  showing  how  materially  that  particular 
class  is  increasing. 

The  clerical  class  (bookkeepers,  clerks,  agents,  sales- 
women, etc.,)  amounted  to  less  than  i  per  cent,  of  the 
total  of  women  employed  in  1870,  but  in  1890  it  had 
grown  to  about  5  per  cent.  There  is  little  doubt  that  it 
has  grown  more  largely  yet  in  these  last  nine  years. 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.       107 

Among  skilled  workers  in  the  great  variety  of  indus- 
tries in  this  country  the  women  made  in  1870  and  yet 
make  a  strong  showing.  In  the  year  first  named  20  per 
cent,  of  all  the  women  employed  were  skilled  workers  in 
the  industries  ;  in  1890  a  trifle  less  than  27  percent.  The 
actual  number  of  persons  in  this  line  had  increased,  but 
not  as  rapidly  as  in  the  two  foregoing  classes. 

Household  servants  and  other  workers  who,  for  lack  of 
a  better  name,  must  be  described  as  belonging  to  the 
labouring  class,  had  actually  decreased  from  about  72  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  in  1870  to  52  per  cent,  in  1890.  There 
were  more  labouring  women  employed,  but  the  number 
in  the  other  classes  grew  so  phenomenally  that  the  pro- 
portion of  women  labourers  was  very  much  less.  This  is 
an  interesting  circumstance. 


A  BEAUX-ARTS  FOR  WOMEN. 

First  in   the    World. — An   Atelier  in  New   York  Especially 

for  Women,  Which  Supplies  Them  with  Admirable 

Facilities. 

WOMEN  of  serious  architectural  aspiration  may  well 
rejoice.  Significant  recognition  of  their  adaptability  to 
the  study  of  architecture  and  the  practical  application  of 
its  principles  to  interior  decoration  is  the  recent  opening 
of  the  Masqueray  atelier,  in  New  York  City. 

New  York  witnesses  in  this  unique  institution  the  first 
Beaux-Arts  founded  for  women  in  the  world's  history. 
The  course  of  architecture  followed  at  the  Ecole  des 
Beaux-Arts,  at  Paris,  is  unsurpassed.  There  students  are 
grouped  under  professors  selected  by  themselves,  and  all 
work  together  for  the  common  good.  By  friendly  criti- 


io8  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

cism  each  helps  the  other,  and  so  artistic  is  the  atmosphere 
created  that  study  is  a  pleasure.  The  Masqueray  atelier 
is  a  practical  fac-simile  of  the  famous  school  founded  by 
Louis  XIV. 

About  ten  years  ago  Emmanuel  Louis  Masqueray,  a 
young  Frenchman,  pupil  of  Leon  Ginain,  member  of  the 
Institute  and  professor  of  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  came 
to  this  country  at  the  solicitation  of  American  students 
whom  he  had  met  in  Paris.  His  struggles  were  those 
inseparable  from  the  experience  of  a  foreigner  steeped  in 
the  art  traning  and  traditions  of  the  Old  World,  and  igno- 
rant of  the  English  language,  who  finds  himself  suddenly 
placed  in  an  environment  suffering  the  first  throes  of  art- 
birth.  The  gifted  young  Parisian,  however,  was  not  slow 
to  assimilate  the  American  spirit.  He  soon  noted  that 
the  architectural  offices  of  the  metropolis  of  the  New 
World  were  filled  with  clever,  industrious  youths,  to  whom 
opportunity  for  serious  study  was  denied.  The  more  he 
pondered  on  the  situation,  the  deeper  grew  the  conviction 
that  the  training  of  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts  was  not 
impossible  to  Americans  who  preferred  to  remain  at  home. 
The  time  was  ripe  and  the  man  equipped  to  found  such  an 
institution  on  virgin  soil. 

Masqueray  had  reaped  honours  at  his  Alma  Mater,  shared 
the  bounty  of  the  Institute  of  France  in  Italy,  and  won  the 
title  of  Designer  of  the  Commission  of  Historic  Monu- 
ments, and  the  gold  medal  of  the  Salon  ;  and  in  1892  he 
opened  an  atelier  at  No.  123  East  Twenty-third  St.,  in 
New  York  City.  The  story  of  the  atelier's  tentative  days 
is  not  unlike  that  recorded  of  the  famous  Julien.  Six 
months'  waiting  brought  one  student  !  Slowly  but  surely 
the  numbers  grew,  until  to-day  representatives  of  every 
State  may  be  found  at  the  Masqueray  atelier.  The  enter- 
prise has  now  more  than  fulfilled  the  hopes  of  its  founder, 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  DECORATION.        109 

and  earned  the  indorsement  of  the  most  eminent  men  in 
the  architectural  profession. 

The  course  of  study  is  identical  with  that  pursued  at 
Paris.  Students  have  access  to  the  studio  day  and  night. 
Problems  are  assigned,  and  twice  a  week  Masqueray  visits 
the  atelier  and  gives  each  student  his  personal  criticism. 
Competitions  are  frequent,  and  a  healthy  spirit  of  rivalry 
prevails.  Each  year  the  standard  is  higher. 

"  En  loge  "  will  eventually  become  as  picturesque  and 
serious  a  feature  of  the  Masqueray  as  it  has  been  for  more 
than  a  century  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts.  Students 
have  the  advantage  of  receiving  criticism  in  their  native 
tongue,  as  Masqueray  has  acquired  English.  A  born 
teacher,  he  brings  to  the  aid  of  his  students  the  enthusi- 
asm of  a  Frenchman  grounded  in  the  art  of  the  best 
schools.  And  be  it  especially  noted  that  he  has  unbounded 
faith  in  women's  ability  to  succeed  in  architecture,  particu- 
larly as  applied  to  interior  decoration,  provided  they  go 
about  it  seriously. 

"  Never  have  I  seen/'  says  Masqueray,  "  women  begin 
the  study  of  architecture  as  does  the  painter  or  the  sculp- 
tor, who  spends  years  in  serious  study  to  acquire  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  best  principles  of  his  art.  Women  are 
generally  content  to  draw  a  little  ;  then  after  a  few 
months  in  an  architect's  office,  where  they  learn  something 
of  plumbing,  building  laws  and  other  less  important  office 
work,  they  are  ready  for  an  architectural  career  !  Of 
architecture  and  composition  they  are  ignorant.  The  result 
is  necessarily  amateurish,  and  is  dubbed  '  woman's  work  ' 
by  the  critics,  who  do  not  seem  to  realise  that  any  man  of 
like  training  would  do  just  as  bad  work." 

Demand  for  artistic  interiors  is  constantly  growing  in 
the  United  States.  Masqueray  foresees  that  now  is 
woman's  opportunity  to  prepare  to  meet  that  demand.  It 


no  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

is  in  response  to  repeated  applications  from  women  for 
admission  to  the  Twenty-third  St.  institution  that  Masque- 
ray  has  decided  to  open  at  No.  37-40  West  Twenty-second 
St.  an  atelier  for  their  exclusive  use. 

Students  will  follow  as  nearly  as  possible  the  Ecole  des 
Beaux-Arts  course,  beginning  with  the  study  of  Greek  and 
Roman  orders  and  passing  through  all  the  periods  of  the 
Renaissance  down  to  modern  architectural  problems. 
The  course  is  intended  particularly  for  students  of  interior 
decoration.  A  thorough  knowledge  of  architectural  design 
is  an  indispensable  basis  for  good  work  in  decorative  com- 
position. Interior  decoration  in  all  the  historical  styles 
will  be  a  feature  of  the  course,  and  the  subject  of  thor- 
ough study,  so  that  students  will  be  able  to  design  a  room 
in  any  style,  including  furniture,  stained  glass,  etc.  The 
work  will  thus  be  harmonious,  the  output  of  one  mind, 
instead  of,  as  is  often  seen,  a  patchwork  of  divers  contribu- 
tion. 

When  shown  the  work  of  two  women  who  had  scarcely 
been  a  week  in  the  studio,  the  mother  of  the  master 
exclaimed  :  "  Why,  it's  superior  to  that  of  the  men  students 
of  as  many  months'  study  !  " 

"  True,"  says  Masqueray.  "  They  are  serious  women. 
They  do  serious  work,  and  I  have  great  expectations." 

The  spacious  women's  atelier  is  in  a  building  replete 
with  studios,  and  when  earnest  women  throughout  the 
country  learn  that  the  training  of  the  Paris  Beaux-Arts 
may  be  had  there  at  a  nominal  cost  its  capacity  will  doubt- 
less be  over-taxed.  Circulars  giving  course  of  studies 
and  terms  may  be  had  on  application. 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE. 

DIGNITY  OF  THE  GOOD  COOK. 

How   This  Art  Attracts  Girls. — Thousands  Attend  Cooking 

and  Training  Schools. —  Why  the  Mistress  of  a  Home 

Must  Know  How  To  Do  Things. 

HE  can  live  without  friends,  he  can  live  without  books, 
But  civilised  man  cannot  live  without  cooks, 

wrote  "Owen  Meredith,"  fifty  years  ago,  and  Lytton 
doubtless  believed  that  the  profession  of  the  culinary 
artist  was  an  honourable  one.  Not  so  the  world  at  large, 
however.  A  cook,  until  within  most  recent  times,  was 
held  in  small  esteem  unless  he — it  was  always  a  he  in  that 
case — had  become  sufficiently  famous  to  be  considered 
worthy  of  the  title  of  chef.  When  this  potentate  had 
tickled  the  palates  of  other  men — for  in  questions  of  taste 
even  in  gastronomy  women's  opinions  were  counted  not 
at  all — so  that  they  responded  in  a  real  Oliver  Twist  man- 
ner, he  had  scored  for  himself  so  high  a  mark  that  it 
must  needs  draw  attention  to  his  individuality. 

Now  every  one  is  learning  to  cook,  and  there  are 
queens  of  the  kitchen  who  may  be  queens  elsewhere  if 
they  will,  royalty  itself  not  disdaining  to  "  make  an 
omelet  in  a  minute,  a  most  simple  thing,  ma  chere." 
Society  young  women,  especially  when  they  are  about  to 
be  married,  take  up  this  branch  of  learning  with  avidity  ; 
young  men  take  it  up  that  they  may  be  able  to  camp  out 
and  go  on  long  journeys  into  places  where  cooking  is 
unknown  ;  trained  nurses  become  cooks  that  they  may 


ii2  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

make  their  patients  more  comfortable.  City  and  foreign 
missionaries  study  the  art,  not  only  to  utilize  it  in  their 
own  economical  homes,  but  in  order  to  improve  the  home 
living  of  those  for  whom  they  work.  Cooks  in  private 
families  are  constantly  obliged  to  add  to  their  knowledge, 
to  keep  abreast  of  the  progress  in  this  department. 
Chefs  at  hotels  and  restaurants  are  having  the  same 
struggle,  while  the  waitress,  seeing  the  cook  waited  upon 
and  receiving  higher  wages  than  herself,  uses  her  own 
earnings  for  cooking  lessons,  that  she,  too,  may  take  a 
cook's  position. 

Thus  the  profession  of  cooking — if  one  may  so  desig- 
nate this  calling — offers  a  great  field  for  those  desirous  of 
being  able  to  demand  always  a  good  place  and  one  that  is 
more  than  ordinarily  independent.  The  better  the  cook 
the  larger  the  salary  she  is  able  to  demand.  Every  hour 
of  time,  every  dollar  spent  in  gaining  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge and  skill  in  cookery  tells.  Good  cooks  are  needed 
everywhere.  In  private  families  the  comfort  and  health 
of  the  household  depend  upon  them.  Success  in  political 
and  social  clubs  rests  much  upon  the  character  and 
management  of  the  cook  or  chef  in  the  culinary  depart- 
ment. Hospitals  and  hotels,  restaurants  and  dairies  are 
completely  dependent  for  their  success  on  the  excellence 
of  the  cuisine.  Indeed,  the  list  of  opportunities  where 
people  capable  of  faultless  cooking  can  earn  a  good  living 
and  be  valued  and  respected  in  their  profession  is  too 
long  to  enumerate. 

It  takes  thought  and  judgment  to  cook,  and  if  one  is 
in  search  of  a  deeply  moral  motive  as  an  excuse  for  pur- 
suing the  work,  why  not  consider  the  happiness  which  is 
immediately  dependent  upon  the  health  of  those  for  whom 
the  cooking  is  done? 

There  is  a  growing  demand  for  thoroughly   educated 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  113 

teachers  in  cooking.  Persons  who  have  had  experience 
in  the  preparation  of  foods  and  understand  the  manage- 
ment of  range  fires  and  ovens,  and  whose  tastes  incline 
them  in  this  direction,  ought  to  be  fitted  in  one  season  to 
teach  classes  of  children  or  adults,  if  they  have  teachers' 
qualifications — that  is,  the  power  of  imparting  what  they 
know. 

Every  student  will  not  make  a  good  teacher,  for"  teach- 
ers are  born,  not  made."  Yet  cooking  lessons  received 
have  often  been  utilized  by  the  pupils  in  other  ways  than 
along  the  lines  of  instructors.  For  instance,  one  woman, 
after  taking  a  course  in  cookery,  found  a  place  as  super- 
intendent in  a  charitable  institution,  where  she  plans  and 
often  assists  in  the  preparation  of  meals  ;  another  is  a 
housekeeper  in  a  girls'  boarding-school,  where  healthful 
food  and  ceremony  in  serving  it  are  expected  ;  another  is 
a  caterer,  with  dated  appointments  for  luncheons  and 
dinners  at  different  houses.  One  teacher  in  the  South  is 
occupied  the  entire  summer  in  making  fancy  dishes  of 
lobster  and  crab  for  a  fashionable  hotel.  Another  sup- 
ports herself  by  filling  orders  for  salads  and  special  dishes. 

These  instances  may  give  suggestions  to  cooking  teach- 
ers whose  regular  classes  will  probably  occupy  but  part  of 
the  year.  Summer  schools  are  becoming  interested  in 
this  branch,  and  are  introducing  it  as  one  of  the  special 
attractions. 

When  it  is  realised  that  twenty-five  years  ago  manual 
training  had  not  been  adopted  in  any  of  the  schools  in 
this  country — which  is  supposedly  in  advance  of  every 
other  land  in  matters  of  education — it  is  not  surprising 
that  cookery  should  have  been  so  late  in  coming  to  the 
fore. 

Last  year  thirty-five  hundred  pupils  received  instruc- 
tion in  this  branch  in  the  city  of  Boston.  The  South  Ken- 


ii4  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

sington  National  Training  School  of  Cookery,  in  London, 
was  opened  in  1873,  and  there  are  now  one  hundred  and 
sixty  schools  where  cooking  is  taught,  and  ninety-six 
places  where  laundry  work  may  be  learned. 

In  the  training  school  in  which  teachers  are  educated 
they  should  not  only  study  and  work,  but  should  have 
constant  opportunity  for  practice  by  teaching  free  classes 
of  children,  thus  gaining  experience,  which  is  an  important 
factor  in  their  education. 

The  New  York  Cooking  School  is  a  training  school  of 
this  character,  where  every  year  from  October  to  May 
this  sort  of  teaching  is  done.  Its  beautiful  rooms  at  the 
top  of  the  United  Charities  Building  are  class-rooms  only, 
with  no  facilities  for  boarding  students.  Fifty  dollars 
covers  the  tuition  of  the  season. 

After  a  student  has  received  her  diploma,  no  employ- 
ment is  promised,  but  constant  opportunities  are  occurring 
where  a  good  teacher  would  find  ample  support.  On  the 
present  staff  the  teachers  receive  $2  for  day  lessons  and 
$2.50  for  evening  lessons  in  plain  cooking.  Teachers  of 
more  elaborate  cooking  have  larger  pay.  Public  demon- 
strators make  their  own  terms. 

Intelligence  and  education  are  of  as  great  an  advantage 
in  fitting  a  woman  to  be  a  qualified  teacher  in  cooking  as 
in  any  profession  she  may  adopt. 

EMILY  HUNTINGTON. 


HOUSEKEEPING  A  SCIENCE. 

Some  Virtues  Which  Must  Be  Attained. — //  Is  Not  Necessary 

to  Know  How  to  Do  Everything,  But  Equable  Temper  y 

Tact  and  System  Are  Indispensable. 

HOUSEKEEPING  is  a  science.     It  has  the  investment  of 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  115 

far  more  money  than  any  half-dozen  of  the  pursuits  of 
men  concerning  which  books  are  published,  public  discus- 
sions are  held  and  great  parties  are  formed. 

The  Treasury  of  the  United  States  handles  vast  sums, 
and  the  recital  of  its  figures  staggers  the  comprehension 
of  any  but  trained  financiers.  Yet  its  utmost  in  receipts 
and  expenditures  would  prove  only  a  petty  and  an  incon- 
siderable item  when  compared  with  the  annual  output  of 
those  little-considered  sisters  of  mine — the  housekeepers 
of  America — and  I  am  forced  to  confess,  to  my  own  con- 
fusion, that  all  the  extravagance  and  criminal  waste  in  all 
the  National  departments  from  that  memorable  Fourth 
of  July  when  our  sires  put  their  names  to  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  down  to  this  present  day  would  not 
begin  to  equal  in  amount  the  waste  and  extravagance  for 
which  those  same  sisters  of  mine  should  be  held  responsi- 
ble within  the  current  twelvemonth. 

For  almost  every  man  who  is  a  worker  there  is  a  woman 
— some  woman,  wife,  mother,  sister  or  only  landlady — 
whose  hand  is  held  open  for  him  on  Saturday  night,  or  at 
the  end  of  the  month,  or  the  quarter,  or  whenever  the 
fruits  of  his  toil  are  gathered,  and  to  whose  care  he  gives 
up  all  but  the  little  he  needs  to  jingle  in  his  pouch  and 
keep  the  ghosts  away.  This  woman  is  the  housekeeper, 
and  upon  her  discretion  and  ability  and  thrift  depend  not 
only  that  man's  creature  comforts,  but,  to  a  great  extent, 
his  success  in  life. 

Having  thus  dignified  the  name  of  housekeeper  by 
showing  that  she  is  the  principal  disbursing  agent  for  the 
wages  of  man,  it  is  now  in  order  to  classify  the  various 
grades  of  this  profession,  from  the  wife  of  the  labourer, 
living  in  a  two-room  cottage  or  a  three-room  tenement, 
up  innumerable  flights  of  dark,  rickety,  dirty  stairs,  to 
the  smart,  alert  woman  of  affairs  who  manages  the  estab- 


n6  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

lishment  of  a  millionaire,  whether  she  be  the  titular  mis- 
tress of  the  house  or  a  paid  employee. 

Among  those  who,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  may  be 
called  the  lower  classes,  it  is  generally  understood  that  a 
thrifty,  busy  wife  makes  of  her  husband  a  thrifty  and, 
within  bounds,  a  successful  man,  unless,  indeed,  he  be 
one  of  those  good-for-naughts  whom  nothing  can  redeem. 

A  step  higher  in  the  social  scale,  although  by  no  means 
so  long  a  step  as  she  likes  to  think  it,  is  the  woman  whose 
means  are  such  that  she  is  enabled  to  employ  a  maid-of- 
all-work,  a  "  hired  girl,"  I  believe,  is  the  accepted  term. 
In  this  class  are  to  be  found  the  two  extremes — the  best 
housekeepers  and  the  worst. 

When  a  woman  attains  to  the  dignity  of  employing  a 
hired  girl  it  makes  or  mars  her.  If  she  keeps  her  hand 
on  the  helm,  if  she  continues  to  do  a  part  of  the  work 
herself  and  to  personally  supervise  that  which  she  does 
not  do,  the  results  are  likely  to  be  most  satisfactory.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  great  bulk  of  the  work  is  dumped 
upon  the  hapless  "slavey,"  while  the  mistress  confines 
her  exertions  to  scoldings  and  fault-finding,  then  has  the 
white-robed  angel  of  peace  left  that  house,  and  the  sooner 
the  fagged-out  husband  and  neglected  children  can  follow 
the  angel,  the  shorter  will  be  their  sufferings. 

An  establishment  in  which  four  to  six  servants  are 
maintained  is  likely  to  tax  the  good  housekeeper's  abilities 
to  the  utmost,  for  the  reason  that  people  in  that  class  of 
life  are  quite  as  critical  in  their  tastes,  as  exacting  in  their 
needs,  as  those  more  favoured  ones  who  are  able  to  main- 
tain a  complete  and  well-ordered  equipment  of  trained 
domestics.  While  yet  the  bottom  of  the  household  purse 
is  much  nearer  to  the  top  than  is  quite  comfortable,  ex- 
penses must  be  kept  down,  while  appearances  must  be 
kept  up,  and  milord  will  be  testy  (and  show  it,  too)  if  his 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  117 

roast  is  not  so  prime  cut  or  his  wine  not  so  sound  a  vin- 
tage as  that  of  his  neighbour,  Sir  Gorgius  Midas,  with 
whom  he  dined  recently. 

I  am  frequently  called  upon,  in  my  business  capacity,  to 
furnish  housekeepers  to  grand  establishments,  and  I  am 
as  often  struck  with  the  absence  of  that  practical  knowl- 
edge, training  and  aptitude  for  controlling  servants  which 
my  applicants  exhibit. 

It  is  not  essential  that  a  housekeeper  should  herself 
know  how  to  cook  in  order  to  spread  a  good  table,  nor 
need  she  be  able  to  clear  starch  nor  to  clean  silver  in 
order  to  direct  competent  servants  in  these  matters.  The 
first  and  greatest  requisites  in  a  housekeeper  are  system 
and  method.  Equipped  with  these  and  a  tolerably  equable 
temper,  she  is  prepared  to  face  an  army  of  servants  and 
to  bring  order  out  of  chaos. 

By  system  and  method  I  do  not  mean  the  wretched 
cut-and-dried  precision  with  which  some  housekeepers  (I 
regret  to  say  they,  with  some  show  of  truth,  call  them- 
selves "  old-fashioned  ")  make  their  homes  wretched  and 
forbidding  alike  to  their  man-servant,  their  maid-servant 
and  to  the  stranger  that  is  within  their  gates. 

I  can  recall  some  houses  in  which  it  has  been  my  hard 
lot  to  find  myself  a  sojourner,  wherein,  should  one  so 
much  as  walk  through  a  drawing-room,  the  hostess  could 
detect  the  fact  as  readily  and  as  unerringly  as  the  red 
Indian  could  detect  the  trail  of  a  settler  passing  through 
the  forest.  A  book  on  the  side  table,  which  for  countless 
years  had  laid  with  its  title  up  and  its  length  northeast  by 
southwest,  may  be  now  headed  north-northeast  by  south- 
southwest. 

The  parlour-maid  could  never  have  been  guilty  of  such 
carelessness.  For  all  those  countless  years  of  her  colour- 
less and  wretched  existence,  each  morning  she  has  care- 


u8  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

fully  lifted  and  dusted  that  same  book  and  replaced  it  in 
mathematically  the  same  position.  Evidently  strangers, 
vandals,  perhaps,  have  been  about  And  there's  that  sofa 
cushion  nearly  two  inches  out  of  place.  "  Mary  !  Mary  ! 
Do  come  and  put  this  room  into  some  sort  of  order  again/' 

Such  housekeepers  as  that  should  be  relegated  to  the 
same  bourne  as  the  self-martyred  flagellants  and  the 
wearers  of  horsehair  shirts.  Perhaps  they  may  derive 
some  morbid  enjoyment  from  their  miseries,  but  they 
render  unhappy  all  with  whom  they  come  in  contact. 

Finally,  to  such  of  my  sisters  as  may  think  of  taking  up 
the  profession  of  housekeeping  for  the  money  there  is  in 
it,  I  would  say  that  to  succeed  they  must  first  of  all  be 
fitted  for  the  task,  either  by  nature  or  by  a  long  and  hard 
tussel  with  the  stern  realities  of  life,  which  will  divest 
them  of  all  those  romantic  ideas  of  the  maintenance  of 
their  own  starched  and  frilled  notions  of  dignity  and 
equality. 

When  a  woman,  be  she  of  gentle  birth  or  otherwise, 
takes  a  position  as  the  manager  of  a  household,  she  may 
or  she  may  not  be  better  than  her  employees  in  her  own 
estimation,  but  the  less  thought  she  devotes  to  such  sub- 
jects the  better  for  herself  and  her  household. 

The  young  man  who  succeeds  in  obtaining  a  place  in 
some  great  mercantile  or  banking  house  rarely  notices, 
much  less  complains,  if  by  chance  it  happens  that  his  em- 
ployer is  at  times  brusque,  cross,  even  unreasonable.  He 
hardly  thinks  of  throwing  up  his  job  because  the  porter 
is  impudent  or  the  chief  clerk  scolds  him  beyond  his 
deserts.  Yet  I  have  had  some  of  my  gentle-born  house- 
keepers come  back  to  me  with  tears  in  their  eyes  and  in- 
dignation in  their  voices  to  complain  that  some  petty 
:  light  has  been  put  upon  them  by  the  lady  of  the  house, 
or  the  butler  has  been  surly  and  insolent.  These  women 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  119 

think  they  are  in  earnest,  yet  they  would,  if  unadvised, 
throw  up  in  a  pet  all  that  stands  between  them  and  misery, 
perhaps  even  starvation. 

I  have  but  little  patience  with  such,  and  yet  I  cannot 
but  think  that  what  they  lack  is  only  the  "  heredity " 
which  has  made  in  their  brothers  the  toughened  fibre  to 
resist  and  overcome  such  petty  attacks. 

Thorough  earnestness  of  purpose,  complete  self-con- 
trol, unerring  tact — the  more  nearly  a  woman  can  attain 
to  these  three  almost  unattainable  virtues  the  nearer 
will  she  be  to  the  perfect  and  successful  housekeeper. 

ELIZABETH  W.  STEVENS. 
Bureau  of  Social  Requirements. 


KEEPING   BOARDERS   AN  ART. 

An  Occupation  That  Women  Usually  Scorn. — //  May  Be  Suc- 
cessful under  Good  Management. — Men  the  Best  Caterers 
and  Housekeepers. 

KEEPING  boarders  is  an  occupation  usually  overlooked 
in  the  lists  of  desirable  occupations  for  women.  Perhaps 
the  oversight  is  due  in  a  measure  to  the  prevalence  of  the 
woesome  type  of  boarding-mistress,  who  is  forever  im- 
pressing upon  the  wayfarers  within  her  gates  the  sadness 
of  her  lot  at  present,  compared  with  those  halcyon  days 
before  she  fell  to  keeping  boarders. 

When  evil  times  fall  upon  a  household,  about  the  first 
thing  the  old-fashioned  woman  thought  of  doing  to  keep 
the  wolf  from  the  door  was  to  take  boarders,  regardless 
of  any  qualifications  or  disqualifications  for  the  occupa- 
tion. But  just  as  there  is  the  new  journalism  and  the  old 


120  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

journalism,  the  new  woman  and  the  old  woman,  so  there 
seems  to  be  an  old  type  of  boarding-house  and  a  new. 
More  and  more  people  are  taking  to  a  sort  of  boarding- 
house  life,  and  the  boarder  is  no  longer  looked  upon  as  a 
bird  of  passage  or  a  person  to  be  pitied  because  he  can't 
afford  a  home.  It  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  adaptation  to 
the  home  life  of  the  principle  of  big  industries.  People 
have  discovered  that  it  is  not  simply  cooking  and  dust- 
ing and  mending  that  make  a  home.  There  are  women 
who  take  to  housekeeping  like  ducks  to  water,  and  there 
are  others  who  don't.  The  latter  are  likely  to  do  other 
work  so  much  better  that  they  prefer  to  do  it,  and  leave 
the  housekeeping  and  cooking  to  those  who  can  do  it 
best. 

The  development  of  this  co-operative  idea  has  pro- 
duced several  new  types  of  boarding-house.  The  most 
interesting,  perhaps,  because  the  one  which  is  likely  to  go 
on  developing,  is  the  big  apartment-house,  where  individ- 
uals have  their  own  suites  of  rooms  and  their  own  furni- 
ture, cared  for  by  the  servants  of  the  house,  by  them- 
selves, or  by  maids  who  come  in  from  outside  each 
day,  and  where  all  dine  in  a  common  dining-room. 
Another  type  is  the  family  hotel,  with  its  furnished  suites 
and  rooms,  its  common  parlour,  billiard  parlours,  smoking- 
room  and  other  adjuncts  ;  and  there  is  the  still  newer 
type,  the  apartments,  which  have  their  separate  dining- 
rooms,  in  which  meals  are  served  from  the  common 
kitchen. 

So  it  seems  a  great  mistake  for  the  new  old  woman,  or, 
rather,  the  young  woman  with  the  new  education,  and 
some  old-fashioned  notions  of  propriety,  who  is  looking 
about  for  opportunities  for  obtaining  a  comfortable 
livelihood,  to  overlook  the  regenerated  trade  of  keeping 
boarders—particularly  as  the  successful  managers  of 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  121 

these  new  types  of  boarding-houses  are  usually  mere 
men.  It's  bad  enough  to  find  that  the  most  prosperous 
milliners  and  dressmakers  and  cooks  are  men,  but  to 
have  a  man  as  a  boarding-house  keeper  seems  going  alto- 
gether too  far  for  the  spirit  of  the  up-to-date  business 
woman. 

Perhaps  the  most  discouraging  feature  of  the  board- 
house  business  to  the  novice  is  the  fact  that  considerable 
capital  is  required.  You  must  have  your  house 
thoroughly  equipped,  to  begin  with.  Prospective 
boarders  are  not  going  to  risk  your  getting  things  after 
they've  taken  your  apartments,  and  you  must  be  able  to 
wait.  It  may  be  months  before  you  get  your  house  filled, 
and  months  more  before  you  get  just  the  sort  of  folks 
you  want.  I  wouldn't  advise  any  woman,  no  matter  how 
great  her  predilection  for  housekeeping,  to  set  up  in  the 
boarding-house  business  unless  she  has  a  houseful  of  fur- 
niture paid  for,  and  money  enough  to  pay  her  rent  for 
four  or  five  months,  at  least. 

Buying  out  an  established  place  has  its  advantages  and 
its  disadvantages.  The  boarders  may  be  friends  of  the 
former  proprietor,  accustomed  to  her  ways,  and  they  may 
resent  changes  and  leave.  In  buying  out  a  place  it  is 
not  wise  to  pay  cash  down.  It's  a  nuisance  having  to 
make  monthly  payments,  but  it's  better  than  to  discover 
that  the  apparent  boarders  are  merely  hangers-on,  given 
room  in  order  to  make  an  impression  on  the  prospective 
buyer.  Claims  on  the  furniture  may  crop  up,  too,  unless 
proper  precautions  are  taken.  I  don't  know  but  that  the 
best  way,  if  you  have  from  $400  to  $1,000,  is  to  take  a  house 
in  the  best  locality  you  can  get,  fit  it  up,  and  advertise 
among  your  friends  and  acquaintances,  at  the  bureaus 
which  direct  people  to  boarding-places  and  in  the  news- 
papers. It  is  better  to  pay  $5  or  $10  more  a  month,  and  get 


122  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

a  house  with  all  the  improvements  at  the  start.  If  one  has 
to  buy  furniture,  good  second-hand  articles,  which  may 
be  picked  up  cheaply  at  the  auction  shops  if  one  is  a  dis- 
creet buyer  and  knows  when  to  stop  bidding,  are  much 
better  than  cheap  new  stuff,  or  buying  on  the  instalment 
plan.  Credit  accounts  are  things  which  will  eat  up  the 
biggest  profits  possible  to  the  boarding-house  keeper. 
You  must  pay  cash,  and  buy  at  wholesale,  whenever  pos- 
sible— no  quarts  of  apples  or  dozens  of  oranges.  You 
must  go  to  the  market  and  buy  your  vegetables  by  the 
barrel  or  bushel.  Another  thing  to  be  remembered  is 
that  grocers  and  butchers  always  give  a  discount  for 
cash  to  boarding-houses. 

If  a  woman  is  a  good  manager  and  knows  how  to  buy 
good  food  at  low  rates,  table  board  pays  better  than  rent- 
ing rooms.  The  profits  on  each  table  boarder  are  prob- 
ably small,  not  more  than  a  dollar  or  two  a  week.  The 
money-making  depends  on  having  a  large  number. 

The  woman  who  is  really  determined  to  make  a  success- 
ful business  of  it  mustn't  be  afraid  to  advertise.  But  she 
should  not  let  the  advertising  take  the  form  of  a  white 
slip  on  the  doorjamb,  or  a  big  yellow  sign. 

In  choosing  a  house  great  attention  must  be  paid  to 
location.  If  men  are  to  be  largely  counted  on,  conve- 
nience to  elevated  railroad  stations  and  proximity  to  clubs 
must  be  considered.  If  family  boarders  are  chiefly  de- 
sired, a  more  fashionable  part  of  the  city  should  be 
selected,  and  yet  this,  too,  cannot  be  remote  from  lines  of 
cars.  The  neighbourhood  must  be  good  ;  a  public  school 
or  orphan  asylum  or  livery  stable  near  at  hand  would 
ruin  the  most  desirable  house.  While  people  wish  to  be 
in  the  midst  of  everything — convenient  to  every  point  of 
interest — they  want  a  quiet  street,  and  especially  a  quiet 
house. 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  123 

No  housekeeper  can  afford  to  allow  any  boarder  to  be 
excessively  noisy  or  disagreeable  in  behaviour. 

Although  it  is  perilous  to  start  a  boarding-house  on 
small  capital  and  to  buy  furniture  on  credit,  the  thing  has 
been  done  successfully.  Some  years  ago  three  women, 
a  mother  and  two  daughters,  came  to  'New  York  from  a 
country  place  with  less  than  one  hundred  dollars.  They 
proposed  to  start  a  boarding-house.  They  found  a  house 
in  one  of  the  Thirties,  convenient  to  clubs  and  cars,  and 
which  the  owner  was  willing  to  let  them  have  on  a  ven- 
ture, the  rent  to  be  paid  at  the  end  of  the  month.  With 
$20  of  their  small  capital  they  bought,  on  the  instalment 
plan,  as  much  furniture  as  they  could  get,  and  fitted  up 
part  of  the  house.  They  were  fortunate  in  letting  one 
room  almost  immediately,  then  another  and  another. 
Meantime  they  took  small  sums  of  the  money  coming  in 
— keeping  enough  for  current  expenses — and  bought  at 
auction  pieces  of  furniture  that  would  be  too  expensive 
for  them  to  afford  if  bought  new.  In  this  way  all  the  rooms 
were  gradually  furnished,  and  contained  attractive  things. 
One  servant  was  kept  at  first,  and  that  one  a  young 
girl  able  only  to  wait  on  the  door  and  the  table.  But  the 
neighbourhood  was  so  desirable  and  the  table  was  so  good 
that  the  house  speedily  filled  up,  and  more  help  was 
needed.  One  of  the  young  women  would  look  at  the 
papers  every  morning  and  answer  the  advertisements  ; 
another  attended  to  the  house,  and  the  mother  to  the 
marketing  and  cooking. 

Of  course  they  had  phenomenal  luck,  and  it  would  be 
unsafe  to  follow  their  example  and  start  with  so  little 
capital ;  but  this  shows  what  has  been  done.  In  three 
years  these  women  had  three  houses  furnished  and  free  of 
debt,  and  were  practically  running  a  private  hotel. 

There  is  a  family  in  this  city  now  that  pays  $3,000  a 


124  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

year  for  a  house.  There  are  five  persons  to  get  a  living 
out  of  it.  The  house  brings  in  about  $10,000  a  year, 
which  nets  a  small  balance  and  keeps  a  nice  home  for  the 
whole  family. 

As  to  the  cost  of  furnishing  a  house  outright,  it  can  be 
done  for  about  $150  a  room  for  the  large  rooms  and  half 
that  for  the  small  ones.  But  this  sum  will  not  supply  the 
dainty  "  fixings "  that  make  a  place  look  homelike  and 
attractive.  It  is  true  that  boarders  almost  invariably 
have  their  own  "fixings,"  and  prefer  to  put  them  out,  dis- 
carding those  they  find  in  the  rooms,  but  the  rooms  must 
have  the  look  of  being  lived  in,  the  "  invitingness  "  that 
attracts,  or  no  one  wants  them. 

Of  course  the  life  of  a  boarding-house  keeper  isn't 
always  pleasant,  but  I  can't  see  that  it  is  half  as  un- 
pleasant as  having  to  spend  six  or  eight  hours  in  an  office, 
and  put  up  with  the  moods  of  an  employer,  as  my  friend 
did  before  a  little  legacy  enabled  her  to  set  up  house- 
keeping on  a  large  scale.  One  needs,  moreover,  a  great 
deal  of  tact  and  a  certain  amount  of  philosophy.  A  big 
bump  of  Irish  humour  is  a  great  help.  When  you  begin, 
set  up  a  few  rules  for  yourself.  The  first  one  should  be  : 
Don't  expect  gratitude  ;  be  satisfied  with  cash,  if  you  can't 
prefer  it.  Another  :  Don't  make  bosom  friends  and  con- 
fidants rof  your  boarders.  Don't  tell  the  boarders  how 
you've  come  down  in  the  world.  Don't  let  any  one  be 
familiar,  and  don't  listen  to  gossip.  Be  kindly,  cheerful, 
tactful  always. 

No  doubt  boarding-house  keepers  have  failed  much  as 
Franklin  did  in  his  efforts  to  live  up  to  a  set  of  virtues. 
But  I  don't  see  any  reason  why  women  shouldn't  make  a 
business  venture  of  boarding-house  keeping,  and  make  a 
big  success  of  it,  too.  It  is  just  a  trifle  humiliating  to  me 
always  when  I  hear  so  much  about  women's  progress  in 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  125 

medicine  and  law  and  the  Lord  knows  what  all,  to  observe 
that  the  most  prosperous  milliners  and  dressmakers  and 
housekeepers  are  men.  It's  a  fact  ;  men  manage  all  those 
big-dividend-paying  family  hotels  and  apartment-houses. 

MARY  E.  J.  KELLEY. 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE. 

An  Old  Idea  in  Glorified  Modern  Form. — Household  Manage- 
ment and  Its  Various  Arts  Now  Reduced  to  a  Scien- 
tific Basis.— A  Lively  Demand  for  Thoroughly 
Competent  Instructors. 

AMONG  the  numerous  fields  of  labour  for  women  none 
have  awakened  a  more  widespread  interest  or  are  of 
greater  importance  to  the  health  and  welfare  of  the  family 
and  the  nation  than  that  of  domestic  science — the  science 
of  household  management. 

It  is  not  strictly  a  new  field,  for  women  have  always 
been  workers  in  the  home,  and  have  always  managed 
their  own  or  the  homes  of  other  people.  In  fact,  home 
has  been  regarded  as  "  woman's  sphere,"  and  the  know- 
ledge of  how  to  manage  it  has  been  generally  acquired  by 
a  sort  .of  apprenticeship  under  the  maternal  guidance, 
beginning  often  in  childhood. 

In  many  instances  domestic  work  has  been  looked  upon 
merely  as  drudgery — mechanical,  unattractive  labour — to 
be  gotten  out  of  the  way  in  the  shortest  possible  time. 

Little  thought  has  been  given  to  its  effect  upon  the 
household,  so  long  as  there  has  been  plenty  to  eat,  drink 
and  wear  and  the  house  was  neat  and  comfortable. 

Wherein  does  the  new  development  of  woman's  work 
in  the  home  differ  from  that  of  the  old  ? 


i26  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Formerly  the  work  of  the  home  was  merely  a  routine 
of  daily  duties,  varied  in  kind  and  degree  by  the  season, 
the  number  in  the  family  and  the  style  of  living.  Women 
were  supposed  not  to  know  much  about  heating,  ventila- 
tion, plumbing  or  sanitary  arrangements.  These  came 
within  the  province  of  the  masculine  minds.  From  a 
business  point  of  view,  the  housework  and  sewing  were 
the  woman's  part  in  providing  a  home  ;  and,  if  she  had 
her  board  and  clothing,  no  other  compensation  was  ex- 
pected. But  if  she  worked  for  other  than  her  own  people, 
she  was  paid  wages. 

The  knowledge  gained  by  the  experience  of  one  family 
was  shared  freely  with  neighbours  ;  recipes  were  ex- 
changed ;  methods  compared,  and  no  one  thought  either  of 
being  paid  for  imparting  her  knowledge  or  paying  to 
acquire  more.  There  was  no  money  value  put  upon  a 
woman's  knowledge  of  household  management,  except  as 
she  worked  out  that  knowledge  by  actual  service  for  others. 

With  the  development  of  scientific  discovery,  the  appli- 
cation of  new  principles  in  improved  machinery,  with 
discoveries  in  biology  and  increased  knowledge  of  the 
limitations  and  possibilities  of  human  development,  came 
the  desire  on  the  part  of  educators  and  philanthropists  to 
improve  the  home  life.  With  the  introduction  of  many 
household  conveniences  came  the  need  of  instruction  in 
their  management. 

As  the  cooking  of  food  had  been  one  of  the  principal 
parts  of  housework,  its  cost  one  of  the  largest  drains  on 
the  family  income  and  its  effects  often  the  most  disastrous, 
it  seemed  natural  that  reform  should  begin  there. 

Almost  simultaneously,  in  different  sections  of  this 
country  and  England,  from  different  motives,  several 
women  of  large  experience  in  housekeeping  began  the 
instruction  of  cookery.  Reasoning  from  the  principle 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  127 

that  we  value  most  that  which  costs  us  something,  a  regu- 
lar fee  was  charged  for  this  instruction,  varying  with 
the  means  of  the  people  who  were  able  to  pay ;  but  in 
many  instances  this  instruction  was  free  to  the  very  poor. 

Being  persons  of  education  and  culture,  these  women 
did  not  simply  teach  the  manual  part  of  cookery,  but  they 
explained  the  composition  and  economic  value  of  food, 
the  needs  of  the  body  and  the  chemical  changes  in  the 
cooking  and  digestion  of  food.  By  their  character,  en- 
thusiasm and  earnestness,  they  gave  dignity  and  grace  to 
a  work  which,  in  the  minds  of  many,  was  beginning  to  be 
looked  upon  as  menial  and  degrading. 

They  taught  principles  as  well  as  methods.  Definite 
rules  and  accurate  measurements  were  used,  in  place  of 
the  former  "  little  of  this,"  "  some  of  that "  and  "  season 
to  taste  "  standards.  Fuel  and  heat,  air  and  water  were 
studied,  and  success  was  proved  not  to  be  dependent  on 
luck  or  chance.  Courses  of  lessons  were  arranged,  and 
pupils  soon  found  that  there  was  more  to  be  learned  than 
the  knack  of  beating  a  cake  batter  to  the  proper  texture. 

Other  women  recognised  the  importance  of  this  in- 
struction, and  soon  many  more  classes  were  organized. 
This  created  a  demand  for  trained  teachers,  and  so 
normal  classes  were  formed.  Physicians  sent  classes  of 
nurses  to  be  trained  in  cooking  for  the  sick. 

Wise  and  generous  women  furnished  the  means  by 
which  experiments  were  made  in  teaching  cookery  to 
school  children,  resulting  in  the  adoption  of  cookery  as  a 
regular  branch  of  study  in  many  public  schools. 

So,  from  single  and  widely  separated  beginnings,  suffi- 
cient interest  has  been  evolved  to  open  the  hearts  and 
purses  of  some  of  our  men  of  wealth,  and  these  have  es- 
tablished schools,  institutes  and  colleges,  where  one  may 
secure  a  thorough  training  in  domestic  arts  and  sciences. 


128  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Any  one  desiring  a  training  for  this  work  should  first 
decide  whether  she  wishes  to  be  a  specialist  or  be  com- 
petent to  teach  any  branch  of  the  subject.  Having  made 
her  choice,  she  should  send  for  circulars  of  the  schools 
and  compare  cost  and  advantages. 

The  time  required  for  training  varies  from  six  months 
to  four  years,  and  the  expense  for  tuition  varies  in  the 
same  proportion.  Schools  are  frequently  changing  their 
rates  and  enlarging  their  equipment,  a  notable  instance 
being  the  change  from  twenty  dollars  for  the  first  normal 
class  in  the  Boston  Cooking  School  to  several  times  that 
rate  at  the  present  time. 

What  are  some  of  the  qualifications  needed  in  students 
who  choose  some  branch  of  domestic  science  for  their 
occupation  ? 

Evidently  the  notion  that  any  one  can  teach  cooking 
continues  to  exist  in  the  minds  of  some  people.  School- 
girls who  do  not  care  to  make  the  thorough  preparation 
necessary  to  enable  them  to  teach  in  the  common  schools 
often  write  as  though  they  supposed  that  much  less  would 
be  required  from  a  teacher  of  cookery.  Women  of  middle 
age,  tired  of  keeping  boarders,  think  the  experience  gained 
in  a  boarding-house,  if  supplemented  by  a  few  lessons  in 
fancy  dishes  or  novelties,  should  be  sufficient  to  insure 
them  a  lucrative  position  immediately. 

But  the  work  has  broadened  and  has  taken  on  a  vital 
meaning,  and  we  now  find  that  the  same  qualifications  are 
requisite  for  success  in  this  as  in  any  other  work,  whether 
it  be  that  of  teaching  Latin,  managing  a  business  or  super- 
vising the  work  of  others. 

I  am  inclined  to  place  first  among  the  requisites  an 
abundance  of  health  and  vitality.  There  is  hardly  any 
occupation  which  makes  a  greater  drain  upon  one's  physi- 
cal endurance  and  nerve  force.  Other  physical  qualifica- 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  129 

tions  are  a  charming  manner,  an  agreeable  personality, 
grace  of  motion,  the  ability  to  stand  well,  absolute  clean- 
liness in  person,  dress  and  appointments  ;  systematic 
method  in  work,  the  deftness  of  fingers  which  comes 
from  practice,  forgetfulness  of  self,  and  surety  of  results  ; 
a  voice  pleasant  in  tone,  distinct  in  utterance,  and  of  a 
good  carrying  quality — in  fact,  all  the  natural  and  culti- 
vated graces  and  power  of  a  fine  public  speaker. 

Some  of  the  mental  qualities  desirable  are  what  we 
often  call  "  a  clear  head,"  not  easily  disturbed  by  outside 
influences  ;  the  ability  to  do  several  things  at  once,  the 
manual  with  the  mental,  and  also  a  patience  unlimited  and 
a  temper  well  controlled.  Executive  ability  and  the  fac- 
ulty of  directing  others  are  equally  essential. 

Then,  of  paramount  importance  is  the  ability  to  impart 
knowledge  in  a  simple,  lucid  manner,  adapted  to  pupils 
of  different  ages  and  varied  degrees  of  intelligence. 

"  A  woman  may  be  a  fine  cook,  yet  no  school  of  do- 
mestic science  can  use  her  unless  she  be  a  real  teacher. 
A  woman  may  be  a  real  teacher,  yet  no  school  of  domestic 
science  can  use  her  unless  she  be  a  fine  cook." 

The  acquired  qualifications  are  :  First,  the  sure  founda- 
tion of  a  high-school  or  academic  education  ;  and  if  this 
can  be  supplemented  by  a  normal  or  college  course,  or  by 
some  experience  in  elementary  teaching  and  a  knowledge 
of  school  organization,  it  will  be  greatly  to  one's  advan- 
tage. 

The  well-trained  pupil  should  have  practical  work  in 
teaching,  under  competent  supervision  and  criticism, 
before  she  goes  out  before  the  world  as  an  expert.  Much 
harm  has  been  done  the  cause  of  domestic  science  by  the 
neglect  of  some  schools  in  this  essential  before  giving  a 
diploma.  And  if  she  can  have  a  large  experience  in  the 
practical  manual  work,  in  the  complications  incident  to 


i3o  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

family  life,  this  experience  will  be  of  great  benefit  in  her 
teaching.  She  must  understand  the  problems  of  eco- 
nomics, particularly  the  economic  value  of  food  ;  must  be 
in  touch  with  life  in  all  its  phases,  the  needs  of  the  poor 
and  the  superfluities  of  the  rich. 

Those  teachers  whose  names  are  most  prominently 
before  the  public,  whose  writings  command  the  highest 
price,  whose  lectures  are  most  in  demand,  and  who  have 
filled  the  most  responsible  places  in  public-school  kitchens, 
are  women  who  had  for  a  foundation  a  good  education,  a 
long  term  of  practical  experience  as  housekeepers,  and 
who  have  added  to  this  experience  not  only  many  years 
of  the  study  of  scientific  principles,  but  an  increase  in 
their  store  of  knowledge. 

The  young  teachers,  like  young  people  generally,  expect 
to  begin  where  the  older  ones  now  are.  Said  a  young  pupil : 
"  I  want  to  be  just  as  high  as  you  are,  to  be  able  to  earn 
what  you  earn." 

"  But  it  took  fifteen  years  to  do  that,"  was  the  reply. 
"  I  did  not  begin  where  I  am  now,  but  have  worked  my 
way  up,  step  by  step,  over  many  rough  places  which  I 
hope  you  will  never  need  to  climb." 

By  no  means  least  among  the  qualities  desirable  in  a 
teacher  is  the  ability  to  put  herself  in  sympathy  with  her 
pupils,  and  to  arouse  in  them  a  love  for  the  study  of  home 
science.  One  cannot  have  too  much  enthusiasm  in  this 
work,  although  some  physicians  argue  that  enthusiasm  is  a 
waste  of  nerve  force  and  should  not  be  aroused.  Many 
find  it  a  powerful  factor  for  success  in  all  their  work,  pub- 
lic and  private. 

A  teacher  should  have  faith  in  herself,  but  she  should 
not  presume  on  the  ignorance  of  her  pupils,  or  insult  them 
by  reminding  them  of  their  deficiencies.  Even  Mr.  Rus- 
kin  recognises  the  fact  that  there  is  something  to  be 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  131 

learned  from  the  old  housekeeper,  for  he  urges  us  to 
combine  the  "  economy  of  our  great-grandmothers  and 
the  science  of  modern  chemistry."  A  noted  scientist  says  : 
"  Never  make  to  a  child  a  positive  statement  that  may 
have  to  be  contradicted  next  year.  Better  qualify  it  by 
saying,  « As  far  as  we  know  now,  this  is  true.'  ' 

New  truths  are  often  accepted  b^  the  mature  mind 
more  readily  when  not  accompanied  by  sarcasm,  or  exag- 
geration, or  reflections  on  one's  mental  capacity. 

What  are  the  possibilities  of  a  livelihood  in  domestic 
science  ? 

The  demand  for  competent  teachers  sometimes  far 
exceeds  the  supply,  for  I  regret  to  say  that  all  who  have  a 
diploma  do  not  manifest  special  fitness  for  this  work. 
Many  schools  and  colleges,  particularly  the  agricultural 
colleges  in  the  Middle  and  Western  States,  have  estab- 
lished departments  of  domestic  science. 

Positions  in  the  public  schools  have  thus  far  been  con- 
fined to  the  largest  cities.  Political  influence  has  thwarted 
the  work  in  some  places  where  it  has  been  well  started. 
Kitchen  gardens,  mission  and  industrial  schools  afford  a 
field  that  is  profitable  in  experience  if  not  in  money.  Then 
there  is  often  an  opportunity  for  practice  classes  among 
one's  friends. 

Women's  clubs  have  added  to  their  other  departments 
classes  for  practice,  lectures  and  demonstrations. 
Schools  of  housekeeping,  women's  exchanges  and  other 
organizations  create  a  demand  for  competent  managers. 
Matrons  for  hotels,  hospitals  and  large  institutions  are 
wanted,  and  such  training  usually  insures  a  position.  Such 
positions  are  often  more  lucrative  than  those  of  teachers, 
and  are  equally  honourable. 

Many  women  have  found  lucrative  employment  by 
editing  the  household  departments  in  magazines  and 


i32  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

newspapers,  and  a  course  in  domestic  science  makes  their 
work  more  valuable.  It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  some 
writers  have  no  other  qualification  than  that  of  a  nimble 
pen  and  flow  of  words.  They  are  experts  only  in  plagiar- 
ism. 

Food  fairs  and  the  introduction  of  special  foods  by 
demonstrations  in  stores,  and  of  stoves  and  kitchen 
utensils,  are  fairly  remunerative. 

Private  catering,  management  of  luncheons  and  din- 
ners, home  cooking  of  specialties,  luncheons  for  schools, 
the  work  of  the  New  England  kitchen,  diet  kitchens,  are 
some  of  the  other  avenues  for  work. 

The  salaries  for  teachers  of  domestic  science  in  the 
public  schools  vary  in  different  localities,  from  $500  for 
the  first  year  to  $1,200  for  superintendents.  Principals  of 
private  cooking  schools  are  not  always  paid  as  high  sal- 
aries, in  proportion  to  the  importance  and  scope  of  their 
work,  as  are  other  teachers.  Often  a  graduate  with  no 
experience  will  secure  a  position  where  the  salary  is  more 
than  that  of  her  principal. 

Teaching  for  an  organization  at  a  fixed  salary  is,  per- 
haps, for  some  women  the  most  lucrative  position  in  the 
long  run.  But  many  prefer  to  work  independently,  and 
have  classes  and  lectures  all  about  the  country,  either  for 
a  definite  price,  or  a  share  of  the  profits,  or  entirely  on 
their  own  responsibility. 

But  probably  the  greatest  remuneration  has  come  to 
those  who  by  their  writing  have  been  enabled  to  reach  a 
much  larger  number  of  people  than  by  class  teaching. 
All  of  the  pioneers  in  the  work  have  written  books  on 
"Cookery,"  "Sanitation,"  "Food,"  "Household  Chem- 
istry," or  some  branch  of  household  economics,  or  are 
connected  with  household  magazines,  and  this  work  prob- 
ably has  added  largely  to  their  income  and  reputation. 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  133 

As  the  work  increases,  there  is  in  this,  as  in  many  other 
professions,  a  tendency  to  specialization.  Success  is  not 
measured,  or  should  not  be,  from  a  pecuniary  point  of 
view  only,  or  from  newspaper  notices.  Many  a  woman 
whose  name  is  almost  unknown  may  have  laboured  as  faith- 
fully and  conscientiously  for  the  home  and  given  as  much 
practical  help  to  her  fellow-women  as  have  those  who  are 
usually  reckoned  among  our  successful  women. 

MARY  J.  LINCOLN. 


WHAT  AMATEURS  CAN  DO. 

The  Preparation  of  Fine  Articles  of  Cookery  for  the    Tables 
of  the  Fastidious. 

THE  mercantile  agencies  and  statistical  authorities  report 
that  four  out  of  every  five  men  who  engage  in  active  busi- 
ness fail  and  go  into  bankruptcy  sooner  or  later  in  their 
careers.  It  will  be  interesting  to  note  at  some  future 
time  whether  women  have  the  same  gloomy  experience. 
If  one  were  to  predict,  knowing  the  economy  and  close 
management  of  most  women,  one  would  say  that  the  fair 
sex  in  business  would  be  liable  to  make  a  better  record. 
However  that  may  be,  the  great  number  of  failures  in  busi- 
ness life,  under  our  present  system,  results  necessarily  in 
many  refined  women  being  suddenly  and  unexpectedly 
confronted  with  the  necessity  and  cares  of  a  business 
career. 

More  than  one  of  such  women  have  undertaken  the  one 
thing  which  they  knew  how  to  do  well,  and  have  embarked 
in  the  cooking  of  cake  and  pies  and  the  preserving  of 
fruits  as  the  only  means  at  command  for  driving  the  wolf 
from  the  door.  Many  are  now  engaged  in  this  calling  in 


134  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

all  parts  of  the  country.  The  success  of  some  of  them  is 
well  known. 

Naturally  the  principal  number  of  those  who  cook 
specially  fine  and  wholesome  articles  of  food  for  the 
market  live  in  the  large  cities.  Those  who  do  not,  but 
who  carry  on  their  business  operations  in  a  country  town, 
must  nevertheless  look  to  the  cities  for  their  market.  The 
Woman's  Exchange  takes  a  considerable  part  of  the  pro- 
duct of  these  private  bakeries  and  canneries,  and,  indeed, 
except  for  these  admirable  helps  to  practical  cooks  of  the 
class  referred  to,  only  a  small  percentage  of  the  latter 
would  be  able  to  do  business  at  all.  They  are  so  minutely 
occupied  with  the  duty  of  producing  the  articles  them- 
selves, or  in  superintending  a  force  of  cooks,  that  some 
of  them  have  little  opportunity  to  create  a  circle  of  buyers 
who  will  take  what  they  have  to  sell.  Some  lack  the 
requisite  acquaintances. 

Miss  Martin,  known  in  all  the  Eastern  States,  carried 
on  her  very  successful  enterprise  at  Willow  Brook,  a  farm 
occupied  by  the  family  during  its  prosperous  days,  roman- 
tically located  on  the  shores  of  Owasco  Lake,  near  the 
city  of  Auburn,  N.  Y.  Here  she  developed  an  industry  in 
the  making  of  wonderful  pies,  cakes  and  preserves  which 
extended  as  far  as  New  York  City  and  into  other  States. 
At  one  time  she  was  able  to  give  constant  occupation  to 
about  fifteen  cooks. 

Other  women  have  followed  her  example,  and  such  as 
have  had  her  admirable  executive  ability  have  earned  a 
comfortable  support,  not  only  for  themselves,  but  in  some 
cases  for  others  dependent  upon  them.  A  woman  acting 
alone,  with  the  aid  of  one  cook,  if  she  is  a  master  of  her 
calling,  can  earn  from  $15  to  $25  a  week  by  the  sale  of 
her  product  at  the  women's  exchanges,  provided  that  the 
market  is  not  overstocked.  Such  earnings  are  possible 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  135 

only  in  a  large  city,  however,  although,  so  far  as  that  is 
concerned,  a  smaller  sum  in  a  smaller  city  is  likely  to 
yield  an  equally  good  support,  owing  to  the  reduced 
expenses  of  living  in  the  smaller  community. 

In  the  homes  of  the  rich  more  attention  is  being  paid 
now  to  the  healthfulness  of  all  articles  of  diet  than 
formerly,  and  women  who  can  be  definitely  relied  upon  to 
produce  not  only  palatable  and  tempting  cakes,  pies 
and  preserves,  but  those  which  are  thoroughly  wholesome, 
may  expect  to  find  a  good  market  for  their  wares,  if  they 
exercise  the  same  ordinary  business  sense  and  manage- 
ment which  are  required  in  other  lines  of  practical  effort. 


WORK  OF  THE  "  COMPANION." 

What  Her  Duties  Are  and  the  Remuneration  She  Receives. 

"  PROBABLY  no  other  occupation  presents  so  great  a 
diversity  in  its  duties,  and  consequently  in  the  qualifica- 
tions necessary  for  fulfilling  them,  as  that  commonly 
known  as  companion,"  said  a  woman  of  experience  to  a 
Tribune  reporter. 

"The  position  is  usually  sought  by  women  who  have 
had  no  training,  with  a  view  to  self-support,  and  who,  in 
the  hour  of  misfortune,  can  think  of  no  other  occupation 
for  which  they  feel  themselves  suited.  In  employment 
bureaus  the  applications  for  such  places  are  sadly  in  ex- 
cess of  the  vacancies,  and  pitiful  are  the  pleas  of  some  of 
the  applicants. 

"  Ordinarily  the  post  of  companion  is  a  trying  one,  not 
so  much  because  the  duties  are  arduous  as  because  they 
are  not  exactly  defined,  and  the  companion  is  not  sure 
what  time  she  may  call  her  own.  But  occasionally  the 


136  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

place  is  a  pleasant  one.  A  bright  woman,  who  might 
have  succeeded  in  other  lines,  accepted  a  position  as  com- 
panion to  an  elderly  widow.  Her  duties  were  to  attend  to 
some  correspondence,  to  read  aloud  in  French  or  English, 
and  to  be  entertaining.  She  was  an  interesting  talker, 
and  did  not  find  the  art  of  entertaining  any  effort.  She 
made  several  trips  to  Europe  with  her  employer,  had  a 
delightful  time,  and  held  her  place  until  she  married. 

"Another  society  woman  of  fine  appearance  became 
companion  to  the  young  daughters  of  a  widower.  She 
merely  acted  the  part  of  chaperone,  and  as  she  enjoyed 
social  functions  she  found  an  ideal  place. 

"  In  many  cases  the  companion  has  the  care  of  an  exact- 
ing invalid,  her  work  is  such  as  would  be  required  of  a 
trained  nurse,  and  she  has  little  time  that  she  may  call 
her  own.  In  some  places  she  performs  many  household 
duties,  and  where  there  are  children  her  office,  nominally 
that  of  companion,  is  really  *  mother's  help.' 

"  The  arts  of  reading  aloud  and  of  talking  well  are 
usually  indispensable  in  the  companion.  The  remunera- 
tion varies  widely.  Probably  the  most  exacting  positions 
return  the  smallest  pay.  There  are  companions  who 
receive  less  than  $10  a  month.  Yet  one  on  such  a  small 
salary  said  she  was  happy  to  earn  even  that,  and  her 
employer,  who  could  not  afford  more,  treated  her  as  a 
sister.  Fifty  dollars  a  month  is  considered  an  uncom- 
monly good  salary,  as  the  companion  has  no  expense  for 
board.  I  knew  one  who  received  $100  a  month:  but  hers 
was  an  exceptional  case." 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  137 


SANITARY  LAUNDRY. 

A  New  York  Woman  Will  Dry  Clothes  in  the  Sun  and  Be- 
come a  Public  Benefactor. 

THE  importance  of  clean  underclothing  to  health  is  a 
question  which  is  being  seriously  considered  by  leading 
physicians,  and  one  of  the  results  of  this  is  a  sanitary 
laundry,  which  is  to  be  established  on  the  outskirts  of 
New  York  City  by  a  woman  who  has  given  the  matter 
careful  study  for  several  months.  She  is  enthusiastic 
over  her  new  enterprise,  and  says  : 

"  I  think  the  importance  of  properly  washed  and  dried 
underclothing,  which  comes  in  direct  contact  with  the 
body,  cannot  be  too  strongly  impressed  on  the  public 
mind.  Can  it  be  good  for  any  one,  especially  an  invalid, 
to  wear  clothes  which  have  been  washed  and  dried  with- 
out being  exposed  to  the  deodorizing  effects  of  wind  and 
sun  ? 

"  In  hundreds  of  laundries  linen  is  dried  in  close  rooms, 
and,  instead  of  being  returned  to  its  possessor  cleansed 
from  all  impurities,  as  well  as  from  actual  visible  dirt,  it 
absorbs  additional  ones  and  becomes  a  source  of  disease. 
Those  people  who  are  unable  to  inhale  fresh  air  and 
derive  benefit  from  the  warm,  life-giving  rays  of  the  sun, 
owing  to  ill-health,  should  be  particularly  careful  to  have 
their  clothes  washed  and  dried  out  of  doors  in  order  that 
the  air  may  thoroughly  purify  them. 

"  Dwellers  in  cities  will  find  that  it  will  add  greatly  to 
their  comfort  and  health  to  send  their  linen  to  the  coun- 
try to  be  washed.  In  these  days  of  easy  transit  it  will  be 
little  trouble  to  do  this.  Let  any  one  smell  linen  that  has 
been  dried  on  the  green  grass  in  the  sun,  and  then  smell 
that  which  has  been  dried  in  a  close,  poorly  ventilated 


138  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

room,  beside  a  cooking  stove,  and  he  will  be  convinced  of 
the  truth  of  my  remarks. 

"  People  who  suffer  from  any  disease  of  the  skin  will 
derive  much  benefit  from  wearing  clean  linen,  often  re- 
newed, which  has  been  charged  during  the  cleaning  pro- 
cess with  fresh  air.  If  linen  has  a  gray  or  yellow  tinge 
and  does  not  smell  sweet  and  fresh,  it  should  not  be  worn. 
The  proper  cleansing  and  deodorizing  of  linen  are  as  im- 
portant as  is  the  daily  bath  or  the  proper  construction  of 
the  drains  of  houses.'* 

The  prospective  sanitary  laundry  will  have  the  indorse- 
ment of  several  leading  physicians  as  well  as  of  the  Board 
of  Health.  The  woman  who  has  projected  the  scheme  will 
incorporate  with  it  many  scientific  methods  of  work,  and 
among  the  features  will  be  a  mending  department,  where 
"  bachelor's  buttons  "  will  be  supplied  gratuitously. 


WAGES  OF  THE  COOK. 

Her  Employment  Now  Mainly  in  Private  Houses. 

TEN  years  ago  women  were  employed  extensively  in 
restaurants,  hotels,  bakeries  and  similar  establishments 
for  the  important  duties  of  cooking.  In  country  hotels 
and  small  city  eating-houses  they  are  yet  found,  giving 
close  attention  to  duty  and  performing  their  office  well. 
But  in  large  hotels  and  restaurants  women  are  now  being 
largely  displaced  by  men,  owing  to  the  superior  physical 
strength  and  endurance  of  the  latter,  and  they  find  their 
own  best  employment  in  private  homes. 

The  salary  paid  to  the  good  cook  in  a  private  home  va- 
ries in  different  parts  of  the  country  ;  but  in  every  region 
where  the  current  rate  of  wages  is  affected  by  that  preva- 
lent in  a  nearby  and  leading  city,  cooks  may  expect  from 


HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE.  139 

$3-5°  to  $5  a  week,  according  to  age  and  experience. 
Exceptional  length  of  service  and  ability  may  increase  the 
rate  of  compensation,  especially  if  there  are  other  cooks 
whom  one  is  to  superintend. 

In  restaurants,  especially  where  a  woman  cook  has 
charge  of  making  the  pastry,  her  wages  may  rise  to  $8  or 
$10  a  week. 

In  the  latter  class  of  cases,  however,  it  is  likely  that 
the  moment  a  cook's  salary  rises  to  the  vicinity  of  $10  the 
restaurant  will  think  of  employing  a  man  for  this  work. 
The  man  will  then  obtain  a  salary  larger  than  is  given  the 
woman,  say  often  as  high  as  $12  to  $15  a  week. 

From  the  large  manufacturing  bakeries  women  have 
now  disappeared  almost  altogether  as  cooks. 


IN  A  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL, 
The  Varied  Experience  of  a  Young  Student. 

WHEN  it  is  said  that  a  poet  is  born,  not  made,  it  is 
meant,  of  course,  that  he  will  pursue  instinctively  and 
irrepressibly,  in  spite  of  seemingly  adverse  circumstances, 
the  lines  requisite  for  a  poet's  development.  And  so  one 
often  sees  the  ultimate  triumph  of  special  fitness  exempli- 
fied in  other  callings  of  life. 

The  c:iri;t:r  of  Mr--.  Mary  Holme  reck,  of  Denver,  Col., 
is  a  G'ise  in  point.  Two  years  ;>o-.-,  H*.i<;  young  vvoii].;n 
came  to  New  York  for  the  purpr./c  : ' ••:i\  ing  art,  hav- 
ing in  mind  some  practical  thought,  ^iiuer  illustrating  or 
designing.  She  studied  six  months  in  the  private  studio  of 
Edgar  M.  Ward,  and  subsequently  entered  the  Academy 
of  Design.  Later  she  was  led  to  take  up  stenography, 
thinking  to  teach  it  in  the  schools,  but  after  spending 


140  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

nine  months  upon  this  study  she  found  to  her  cost  that 
she  had  been  taught  a  system  of  use  only  in  Brooklyn 
schools,  in  which,  unhappily,  no  vacancies  existed.  She 
was  reduced  to  the  need  of  teaching  private  pupils,  and 
at  the  same  time  took  up  the  study  of  domestic  art  at 
Pratt  Institute — a  subject  she  had  always  liked,  but 
thought  it  waste  of  time  to  study. 

Here  she  seemed  to  have  found  her  proper  sphere. 
Working,  however,  through  the  most  unfavourable  condi- 
tions and  every  conceivable  hardship,  she  did  a  year's 
work  at  Pratt's,  and  a  few  days  ago  received  an  appoint- 
ment in  the  Manual  Training  High  School  of  Denver. 
For  this  school  she  has  nothing  but  the  highest  praise. 
"  No  better  school  of  its  kind  exists  in  this  country,"  she 
writes  enthusiastically  to  a  friend.  And  again,  "  I  con- 
sider myself  highly  favoured  in  being  appointed  here,  and 
started  in  last  week  a  happy  woman,  confident  of  my  suc- 
cess as  a  teacher  of  sewing,  because  of  my  perfect  train- 
ing and  natural  ability  for  that  branch  of  work." 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS. 

GIRLS  IN  CLERICAL  WORK. 

S.  S.  Packard  on  Stenography. — No  Better  Opportunity  Any- 
where for  a  Young  Woman  of  Fair  Education, 
Persistent  Application  and  Common-Sense. 

SOME  thirty  years  ago  it  came  to  me  that  many  business 
houses  in  New  York  were  badly  served  in  clerkships, 
owing  in  no  small  degree  to  the  fact  that  good,  capable 
women  were  not  employed  in  the  place  of  incompetent 
and  inconsequent  boys  ;  and  I  thought  it  might  be  worth 
the  effort  to  do  what  lay  in  my  power  to  change  this  con- 
dition. This  was  before  the  introduction  of  the  type- 
writer, and  before  the  proved  utility  of  the  office  stenog- 
rapher. I  accordingly  advertised  through  the  best 
mediums,  reaching  the  city  and  into  the  suburban  places, 
for  fifty  intelligent  and  courageous  young  women  who 
would  accept  a  business  training  at  my  hands  and  hold 
themselves  ready  for  such  positions  as  might  offer.  In 
response  to  this  appeal  I  obtained  thirty  girls  and  young 
women  ranging  from  eighteen  to  thirty-five  years  of  age. 
I  proposed  to  educate  them  at  my  own  expense  and  to 
supply  them  all  with  paying  situations.  They  were  zestful 
and  ambitious,  and  soon  removed  any  doubt  I  had  as  to 
the  good  results  which  might  follow.  Comparatively  few 
came  from  the  country,  and  they  were  all  self-supporting 
women  or  those  who  desired  to  be  such.  None  sought  the 
instruction  merely  as  an  accomplishment. 


142  '  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

As  soon  as  I  discovered  the  particular  qualities  of  indi- 
vidual students  I  opened  a  correspondence  with  business 
houses,  selecting  those  most  likely  to  require  the  kind  of 
service  that  women  could  render.  These  were  publica- 
tion offices,  lawyers'  offices  and  the  class  of  retail  mercan- 
tile houses  in  which  I  felt  sure  good  places  could  be 
eventually  secured.  I  simply  said  to  these  possible 
employers  that  I  had  at  command  a  number  of  well-proved, 
efficient  women  clerks,  who  were  not  only  able  to  work, 
but  willing  to  do  so,  and  who  could  readily  supplant  ineffi- 
cient office  boys  and  young  men  who  depended  upon  their 
sex  to  hold  their  own  as  against  women  of  whatever  quali- 
fications. The  result  was  that  I  had  no  difficulty  in  plac- 
ing every  well-qualified  girl  in  a  paying  position. 

The  most  gratifying  thing  about  the  whole  matter  was 
the  sense  of  thankfulness  which  was  awakened  in  the 
hearts  of  the  employers.  It  was  discovered  that  there 
were  ever  so  many  things  in  and  about  offices  that  were 
supposed  to  be  within  the  scope  of  young  men  alone  that 
could  be  done  quite  as  efficiently  and  appropriately  by 
girls  ;  such,  for  instance,  as  managing  office  details  and 
taking  charge  of  department  work.  In  a  number  of 
instances  my  bright  girls  developed  into  competent  man- 
agers, and  in  a  few  cases,  now  vivid  in  my  memory, 
achieved  distinguished  success  as  executive  officers  in 
houses  where  they  began  as  subordinate  clerks.  The 
advent  of  the  typewriter  opened  a  new  and  limitless  field, 
and  I  had  the  great  satisfaction  of  placing  the  first  girl 
stenographer  in  business.  This  line  of  employment,  as  is 
now  so  well  known,  was  especially  adapted  to  the  clear 
brain,  quick  fingers  and  methodical  habits  of  the  resource- 
ful girl,  and  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  it  has  grown  to  be 
almost  exclusively  "  woman's  work." 

To  such  an  extent  is  this  true  that  it  is  difficult  to  find 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  143 

young  men  willing  to  undertake  stenography  as  a  profes- 
sion, and  so  to-day  one  of  our  chief  difficulties  is  to  nil 
the  places  that  are  open  and  so  full  of  promise  in  the  way 
of  advancement,  for  it  goes  without  saying  that  there  are 
many  stenographic  positions  which  can  be  filled  only  by 
young  men. 

One  of  the  deplorable  results,  however,  of  this  demand 
for  young  women  as  stenographers  has  been  the  precipi- 
tation upon  the  business  community  of  a  horde  of  half- 
qualified  girls,  who  get  a  smattering  of  instruction  in 
schools  and  otherwise  and  push  themselves  into  places 
which  they  are  wholly  incompetent  to  fill.  A  feeling  pre- 
vails among  the  unthinking  that  to  be  able  to  manipulate 
typewriter  keys  and  "  take  down  "  from  dictation  at  an 
assumed  speed  cover  the  requirements  in  this  department 
of  work,  while  the  fact  is  that  there  is  probably  no  clerical 
position  in  which  brains  count  for  so  much.  To  be  the 
accepted  medium  of  communication  between  the  business 
or  professional  man  and  his  correspondents  is  to  be  a 
trusted  and  faithful  employee,  and  any  degree  of  aptness, 
intelligence  or  fidelity  is  sure  to  meet  its  reward. 

In  spite  of  the  plethora  of  applicants  for  stenographic 
places,  there  has  never  yet  been  a  time,  and  is  not  likely 
to  be,  when  competent  female  stenographers  will  not  be 
needed,  and  in  all  my  experience  as  an  instructor  it  has 
never  been  difficult  to  place  a  competent  stenographer. 
Let  it  be  understood  at  the  outset,  however,  that  a  com- 
petent stenographer  can  never  be  measured  by  the  ability 
to  write  a  hundred  words  a  minute  without  understanding 
them,  or  manipulating  a  machine,  however  deftly,  unac- 
companied with  the  sense  which  renders  the  work  accept- 
able. 

The  question  of  most  interest  to  the  seeker  of  profitable 
employment  pertains  undoubtedly  to  the  cost  of  acquiring 


i44  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

competence,  to  the  probability  of  being  able  to  do  the 
work  and  to  the  place  which  can  be  secured,  and  these 
questions  are  all  difficult  to  answer  so  that  they  will  fit 
individual  cases.  To  those  who  are  able  to  stand  the 
expense  the  surest  and  best  means  of  becoming  expert 
stenographers  is  through  the  best  schools,  and  it  so  hap- 
pens that  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially  in  our 
large  cities,  there  are  well-conducted,  efficient  schools 
where  the  learner,  having  inherent  qualifications  and  a 
fair  English  education,  can  eventually  count  upon  attain- 
ing to  proficiency  of  the  highest  order.  It  is  within  the 
scope  of  efficient  teachers  absolutely  to  fit  the  students 
for  the  most  exacting  duties  of  stenographic  work,  and  it 
is  not  impossible  for  an  energetic  and  intelligent  young 
woman  to  acquire  the  art  through  private  study,  with  such 
assistance  as  may  easily  be  had  from  practical  stenogra- 
phers. 

As  to  the  pay  for  acceptable  work,  the  chances  are  per- 
haps better  in  this  field  than  in  any  other  where  women 
are  generally  employed.  No  proficient  stenographer,  even 
without  large  experience  as  such,  need  work  for  less  than 
from  $8  to  $10  a  week  at  the  start,  and  that  with  an  assur- 
ance of  steady  advancement.  The  rates  paid  for  good 
stenographers  in  the  best  business  houses  to-day  vary 
from  $10  to  $20  a  week,  and  there  is  possibly  no  line  of 
work  in  which  women  can  engage  having  a  fairer  prospect 
of  leading  to  something  even  better. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  desirable  openings  for  girls 
as  mere  copyists  on  the  typewriter,  where  a  knowledge  of 
stenography  is  not  absolutely  required.  The  chances  for 
advancement,  however,  in  these  places  are  very  limited. 
No  woman  should  undertake  the  study  of  stenography 
and  typewriting  until  she  has  a  good  use  of  her  mother 
tongue,  both  spoken  and  written.  With  that  knowledge 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  145 

added  to  general  intelligence — the  more  the  better — and 
an  earnest  determination  to  be  thorough,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  her  success.  It  should  be  added  that  pupils 
beyond  the  ordinary  school  age  are  likely  to  have  some 
difficulty  in  acquiring  the  manual  facility  necessary, 
unless  the  training  of  mind  and  hand  has  been  continued 
after  the  school  days  are  over. 

However,  even  those  who  fail  to  become  very  rapid 
writers  sometimes  more  than  make  amends  for  this  defi- 
ciency by  good  judgment,  carefulness,  fidelity  and  general 
reliability. 

S.  S.  PACKARD. 


TYPEWRITING   A   REAL  ART. 

Novices'  Funny  Blunders. — No  Earnest  Girl  Who  Wishes  to 

Be  Self -Supporting  Need  Be  Scared  by  Jesters'  Paragraphs. — 

Most  Employers  Are  Gentlemen. 

A  chiel's  amang  ye  takin'  notes, 
And,  faith,  he'll  prent  it. 

ACCORDING  to  the  humourous  paragrapher,  the  woman 
stenographer  and  typewriter  is  commonly  regarded  as  a 
frivolous,  illiterate  and  irresponsible  young  person,  who 
acts  the  part  of  the  "  pretty  typewriter  "  in  the  domestic 
drama  with  the  untrustworthy  husband  and  employer  and 
the  jealous  wife.  The  squibs  appear  with  wearying  fre- 
quency and  monotony. 

"  They  would  be  more  pardonable  if  they  were  less 
inane,"  said  a  well-known  stenographer.  "  But  they  are 
as  deficient  in  originality  and  as  poor  in  taste  as  the 
hackneyed  jokes  about  the  mother-in-law." 

The  manners  and  morals  of  a  small  minority  offer  a 


146  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

slight  foundation  for  such  innuendoes.  But  the  repre- 
sentative stenographer  is  a  responsible  business  woman, 
capable,  faithful  and  thoroughly  in  earnest.  She  is  often 
elderly,  and  not  always  beautiful. 

And  as  a  rule,  though  the  woman  in  his  service  be 
young  and  attractive,  the  employer  does  not  misuse  his 
position.  He  is  a  busy  man,  anxious  to  have  his  work 
done  promptly  and  well,  and  his  relations  to  the  stenog- 
rapher are  in  general  strictly  of  a  business  nature. 
Good  principle  exists  in  business  offices,  despite  the  para- 
grapher  and  the  fact  that  some  unprincipled  persons  are 
found  there. 

In  the  offices  of  a  well-known  firm  in  Wall  Street  a  dig- 
nified, middle-aged  woman  has  the  oversight  of  the  steno- 
graphic department.  When  illness  in  her  family  called 
her  away  for  two  or  three  months  the  head  of  the  firm 
sought  a  substitute  of  equal  age  and  discretion  as  a  sort  of 
office  mother  for  the  younger  ones.  By  his  orders  the 
young  girls  must  not  be  kept  late,  and  thus  be  obliged  to 
go  home  alone  after  dark.  As  a  "  gentleman  of  the  old 
school,"  with  daughters  of  his  own,  he  believes  that  duty 
calls  him  to  exercise  a  fatherly  care  for  those  who  ar,e  in 
his  employ.  A  well-bred  man  is  as  courteous  to  his 
stenographer  as  he  is  to  other  women,  and  from  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men  whom  she  meets  in  the  business 
world  the  self-respecting  stenographer  receives  respect- 
ful consideration. 

44  There  is  a  marked  change  in  my  husband's  office 
since  Miss  X.  went  there,"  said  the  wife  of  a  prominent 
iron  merchant.  "  Everything  appears  so  much  more 
neat  and  orderly,  and  there  is  a  decorum  in  the  conduct 
of  the  young  men  that  was  not  in  evidence  before  her 
advent." 

The  charge  of  illiteracy  in  young  stenographers  has 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  147 

some   justification.     It  is  true  of  the  stenographer   of  a 
certain  class  that — 

There  be  maidens  fair  as  she, 
Whose  verbs  and  nouns  do  more  agree. 

One  of  this  grade,  after  long  consideration  of  her 
notes,  transcribed  a  phrase  as  "  He  hadn't  oughter  go." 
She  "  went "  the  next  morning,  and  her  distracted  em- 
ployer, when  seeking  a  successor,  stipulated  that  ability 
to  write  English  should  have  precedence  of  speed  in  tak- 
ing dictation. 

Another,  believing  that  a  "  counter  proposition  "  must 
necessarily  relate  to  the  sale  of  goods,  constructed  a  sen- 
tence accordingly.  A  stenographer  from  the  country 
transcribed  the  close  of  "  Quod  bene  notandum  "  as 
"  tandem,"  and  sought  despairingly  through  her  notes  for 
a  reference  to  the  horses.  But,  excepting  the  ordinary 
terms  used  in  law,  the  employer  should  not  have  expected 
her  to  be  familiar  with  foreign  phrases. 

Defects  in  early  education  are  overcome  with  difficulty  ; 
the  art  of  writing  and  speaking  grammatically  cannot  be 
acquired  in  the  time  usually  devoted  to  the  study  of 
stenography,  and  thus  illiterate  stenographers  hold  certifi- 
cates from  some  schools. 

In  many  commercial  houses  there  is  little  variety  in  the 
correspondence,  and  stenographers  who  can  spell  words 
in  general  use  and  who  have  some  knowledge  of  business 
forms  often  fill  such  places  satisfactorily,  though  their 
education  does  not  qualify  them  for  an  extensive  and 
varied  correspondence  or  the  work  of  a  reporter. 

A  woman  who  accepted  a  place  with  an  association  of 
engineers,  and  whose  duties  were  to  report  the  discus- 
sions of  the  society  for  publication  in  its  journal, 
found  that  the  membership  included  civil,  mechanical 


i48  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

and  mining  engineers,  electricians,  architects  and  the  pro- 
fessors in  a  scientific  school ;  the  last-named  brought 
papers  on  astronomy,  geology,  chemistry  and  various 
abstruse  subjects  for  discussion.  In  order  to  hold  her 
place  she  was  obliged  to  take  an  arduous  course  of 
study  to  familiarize  herself  with  the  technical  terms  em- 
ployed, and  to  devise  brief  word-signs  for  them.  The 
stenographer  of  a  patent  lawyer  requires  a  wider  vocabu- 
lary than  one  who  is  employed  in  the  ordinary  law  of- 
fice. The  all-around  stenographic  reporter  should,  like 
the  competent  newspaper  man  or  woman,  "  know  some- 
thing of  everything." 

Some  notes,  such  as  those  of  court  testimony,  must  be 
given  "  verbatim  et  literatim,"  but  in  reports  of  speeches, 
sermons  and  in  some  correspondence,  though  the  precise 
sense  must  be  retained,  the  sound  may  be  changed. 
"  Exact  stenography,  like  exact  photography,  is  apt  to 
show  harsh  lines."  As  a  rule,  extempore  sermons  and 
addresses  require  editing  in  the  transcription.  Some  em- 
ployers do  not  use  correct  English.  Others,  in  the  hurry 
of  business  life,  dictate  involved  and  ambiguous  sen- 
tences, and  desire  the  amanuensis  to  make  the  necessary 
revision.  No  assistant  should  revise  without  authority 
to  do  so. 

In  regard  to  study  in  a  stenographic  school,  it  is  said 
that  no  definite  period  can  be  given  for  the  time  required, 
as  the  general  education  and  aptitude  of  students  vary 
greatly,  but  after  a  course  of  six  months  the  average 
student  should  be  able  to  take  a  place  as  amanuensis. 
The  cost  is  $10  a  month.  Private  lessons  are  given  at 
from  50  to  75  cents  a  lesson. 

One  stenographic  school  says  that  a  student  of  average 
.-'.",; ility  and  application  requires  about  three  terms,  of  ten 
vveeks  each,  to  complete  the  course  and  become  qualified 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  149 

to  accept  a  place  in  a  business  office.  The  charge  is  $45 
a  term.  Some  acquire  the  requisite  knowledge  in  a  short 
time,  others  need  a  longer  period.  A  more  extended 
course  is  required  for  the  place  of  court  reporter. 

It  is  said  that  a  few  women  stenographers  in  responsible 
places  receive  several  thousand  dollars  a  year  ;  but  they 
shine  in  heights  as  far  removed  from  the  struggling 
amanuensis  as  the  lofty  places  where  the  great  literary 
lights  walk  are  above  the  plane  of  the  minor  poet  and  tale- 
maker. 

Some  stenographers  work  in  offices  for  as  little  as  $6  a 
week  ;  a  small  minority  receive  $25  or  $30  a  week.  The 
average  compensation  is  about  $10  a  week. 

A  competent  stenographer,  in  business  for  herself,  may 
make  a  comparatively  large  income.  Unless  she  merely 
takes  desk  room  in  an  office,  she  must  pay  a  high  rent  in 
a  good  business  neighbourhood,  and  meet  other  expenses. 
The  stenographer  of  established  reputation  receives  25 
cents  a  folio  for  law  work  and  testimony  ;  15  to  18  cents 
a  folio  for  other  work  ;  for  typewriting  from  a  copy,  five 
cents  a  folio,  and  a  higher  rate  for  copying  tabulated 
work.  If  several  copies  are  furnished,  there  is  an  addi- 
tional charge  for  each  carbon  copy.  Thus  it  is  possible 
for  a  stenographer  to  make  $8  or  $10  a  day,  but  such 
hard  work  could  not  be  kept  up  daily  except  by  one  with 
great  endurance.  Physique  and  temperament  are  import- 
ant factors  in  the  success  of  a  stenographer.  Long  and 
rapidly  dictated  reports  are  a  severe  strain  on  the  nervous 
system. 

Court  reporters  receive  $10  a  day  when  on  duty.  In 
New  York  and  in  nearly  all  of  the  States  there  are  women 
in  this  position,  but  the  number  is  comparatively  small. 
Women  outnumber  men  as  teachers  of  shorthand,  and  have 
been  most  successful  in  this  line. 


150  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Among  the  women  in  New  York  who  are  at  the  head  of 
stenographic  firms  where  assistants  are  employed  are 
Miss  A.  P.  Alder,  No.  156  Broadway  ;  the  Misses  Buttner, 
Mills  Building  ;  Miss  A.  R.  Cooper,  No.  in  Broadway  ; 
the  Misses  Cronyn  and  Holland,  No.  150  Nassau  St.  ; 
Mrs.  M.  L.  Ferris,  No.  206  Broadway  ;  Miss  S.  A. 
Fletcher,  No.  1,125  Broadway  ;  Miss  F.  M.  Gill,  No.  51 
Chambers  St.;  M.  E.  Hill  &  Co.,  No.  5  Beekman  St.;  the 
Misses  Jackson  and  Newton,  No.  26  Cortlandt  St.;  Miss 
L.  Kraus,  No.  120  Broadway  ;  Miss  A.  T.  Mallon,  No.  309 
Broadway  ;  Miss  E.  F.  Pettingill,  No.  26  Court  St.,  Brook- 
lyn ;  Miss  M.  R.  Pollock,  No.  280  Broadway,  New  York  ; 
Miss  Jennie  T.  Powers,  No.  32  Nassau  St.;  Miss  C.  G. 
Pratt,  Cotton  Exchange  ;  Miss  F.  Ranney,  No.  115  Broad- 
way ;  Ella  Rawls  &  Co.,  Mills  Building  ;  Z.  &  L.  Rosen- 
field,  No.  1,440  Broadway  ;  Miss  Cora  Smith,  No.  71 
Broadway  ;  Mrs.  Frances  A.  Ramsay,  No.  19  Union 
Square.  And  there  are  other  professional  stenographers 
of  high  standing  who  are  not  named  here. 

Miss  E.  N.  Hutchings,  who  was  associated  with  the  late 
Miss  Seymour,  has  offices  at  Nos.  120  and  141  Broadway. 
Miss  A.  Tileston  does  a  large  business  at  the  Astor  House 
and  at  No.  120  Broadway.  The  Misses  F.  S.  and  J.  B. 
Johnson,  who  came  to  New  York  from  Wisconsin  only  two 
years  ago,  have  already  built  up  a  substantial  business  ; 
their  offices  are  in  the  Bank  of  Commerce  Building,  No. 
31  Nassau  St.  Miss  S.  L.  Conglin,  at  No.  8  East  Forty- 
second  St.,  places  stenographers  in  positions,  furnishes 
typewriting  machines  and  supplies,  revises  manuscript, 
and  carries  books,  pamphlets,  etc.,  through  the  press. 

One  of  the  best-known  shorthand  writers  in  this  coun- 
try is  Mrs.  Isabel  C.  Burrows.  She  is  the  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Samuel  J.  Burrows,  of  Boston,  Editor  of  The  Christian 
Register,  who  is  now  a  member  of  Congress.  Soon  after 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  151 

her  marriage,  in  1867,  Mrs.  Burrows  occupied  her  hus- 
band's place  as  private  secretary  to  William  H.  Seward. 
Later,  during  a  year  of  study  in  the  University  of  Vienna, 
she  took  her  notes  in  shorthand,  translating  into  English 
as  the  professor  spoke.  This  practice  enabled  her  after- 
ward to  perform  the  feat  of  taking  a  speech  of  Carl 
Schurz  in  German,  translating  it  mentally  into  English 
and  recording  it  in  shorthand.  Mrs.  Burrows  was  the 
first  woman  employed  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  and 
was  requested  to  sign  only  her  initials  when  drawing  her 
pay,  lest  she  should  be  discharged  if  it  were  known  that 
a  woman  was  doing  the  work. 

When  every  one  employed  in  the  Capitol  was  required 
to  take  the  "  ironclad  oath,"  she  was  obliged  to  march  to 
the  room  of  the  sergeant-at-arms  and  swear  that  she 
never  had  borne  and  never  would  bear  arms  against  her 
country.  Since  leaving  Washington  she  has  reported  the 
sessions  of  conferences  and  associations,  edited  the  notes 
and  put  the  volumes  through  the  press.  She  is  also  her 
husband's  amanuensis. 

On  August  ii  of  this  year  a  woman  who  was  honoured 
for  her  noble  character  as  well  as  for  her  great  intellec- 
tual gifts  passed  away.  This  was  Mrs.  Sophia  Brauenlich, 
who,  when  a  young  widow,  began  her  business  career  in 
1879  as  amanuensis  in  the  office  of  The  Engineering 
and  Mining  Journal,  a  place  which  was  secured  for  her 
by  S.  S.  Packard.  Her  talents  and  tireless  industry  enabled 
her  to  work  her  way  up  until  she  became  exchange  reader 
and  exchange  news  editor.  In  1888  she  was  appointed  sec- 
retary and  treasurer  of  the  Scientific  Publishing  Company, 
and  performed  the  duties  of  the  place  in  addition  to  her 
other  work  until  the  time  of  her  death.  In  January,  1890, 
she  was  made  business  manager  of  the  company,  in  which 
place  she  showed  remarkable  executive  ability  and  effi- 


152  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ciency  in  every  respect.  Mrs.  Brauenlich  was  a  member  of 
the  Professional  Woman's  League,  and  was  the  first  Amer- 
ican woman  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Imperial  Institute  of 
London.  In  the  issue  of  The  Engineering  and  Mining 
Journal  which  contained  the  notice  of  her  death  the 
editor  paid  a  touching  tribute  to  the  worth  of  his  co- 
worker. 

These  women  have  demonstrated  the  fact  that  it  is  pos- 
sible for  members  of  their  sex  to  "achieve  success  in 
a  calling  that  is  said  to  require  a  training  as  broad  and 
many  sided  as  men  are  commonly  supposed  to  need  for 
similar  undertakings.  As  in  everything  else,  real  ability 
to  perform  the  work  assumed  will  meet  with  a  proper 
acknowledgment  and  be  rewarded  with  the  usual  com- 
pensation and  honours. 

MARY  B.  SANFORD. 


BE  YOUR  OWN  TYPEWRITER. 

Penmanship  Declining. — A   Typewriting  Machine   Which  Is 
Especially  Suitable  for  a  Woman. 

"  There  goes  haughty  Miss  Le  Grand." 

"  I'll  wager  she's  off  for  a  frolic,  and  has  sartorial  arti- 
cles galore  in  that  smart  receptacle  swaying  jauntily  at 
her  side." 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it.     It's  her  staff  and  her  crutch." 

Mrs.  Curio  dropped  her  inquisitorial  lorgnette. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ? " 

"I  mean  that  haughty  Miss  Le  Grand  and  her  type- 
writer are  off  on  a  money-making  jaunt." 

"  A  typewriter  in  that  dainty  satchel  ?  Nonsense.  It 
requires  a  furniture  van  to  transport  a  machine." 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  153 

"  My  dear,  how  your  optical  education  has  been  neglected. 
Every  up-to-date  woman  in  the  bread-winning  world 
knows  that  American  ingenuity  has  long  ago  invented  a 
machine,  portable  as  a  watch,  adjustable  as  a  folding  bed, 
hardy  traveller  as  an  engineer  or  sailor,  and  capable  of 
clean-cut,  speedy  work." 

"  And  the  paragon  costs  a  fortune,  of  course  ? " 

"  It's  within  the  reach  of  humble  purses." 

"  Could  I  learn  to  manipulate  it  ? " 

"  Can  a  child  play  marbles  ?  " 

"  There's  no  denying  :  typewritten  manuscript  is  becom- 
ing imperative.  Do  you  know,  I  half  suspect  that  my  last 
stories  have  been  returned  without  a  reading,  simply 
because  they  were  not  typewritten.  But  it  costs  so  much. 
Fifty  cents  a  thousand  words  soon  mounts  up." 

"  Why  not  heed  the  advice  of  W.  D.  Howells — Be  your 
own  typewriter  ? " 

Legible  penmanship  is  a  lost  art.  So  long  has  the  fact 
been  recognised  in  the  business  world  that  a  typewriter 
is  as  essential  as  an  office  to  the  transaction  of  affairs. 
Its  indispensability  has  outgrown  the  confines  of  the 
world  mercantile.  The  time  is  not  distant  when  it  will  be 
as  conspicuous  an  essential  to  the  well-ordered  household 
as  is  the  piano.  Its  skilful  manipulation,  as  is  well  known, 
gives  employment  to  thousands  of  women.  But  it  is  not 
to  the  professional  or  would-be  professional  woman  type- 
writer, but  rather  to  the  woman  who  depends  largely 
upon  written  thought  for  livelihood  or  well-doing  in  club 
and  church  work  for  mental  or  social  advancement  that 
the  advice  of  the  great  realist  particularly  appeals. 

How  might  the  woes  of  the  rejected  be  assuaged,  could 
they  realise  how  great  a  part  mechanical  make-up  plays 
in  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  a  manuscript  !  Unhap- 
pily, the  fact  is  not  generally  known,  save  to  those  in  per- 


154  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

sonal  touch  with  the  inner  life  of  editorial  sanctums.  In 
newspaper  offices  and  publishing  houses  mail  is  generally 
separated  before  perusal  into  the  handwritten  and  the  type- 
written. The  latter  is  invariably  read  first,  while  the 
former,  if  it  be  manuscript  unordered,  or  bear  a  signature 
unknown,  awaits  the  leisure  or  the  caprice  of  the  editor. 
The  reason  is  obvious.  Time  is  money.  All  that  tends 
to  simplify  living  is  accepted.  So  great  is  the  revolution 
wrought  by  the  typewriter  in  the  saving  of  time,  money 
and  annoyance,  that  not  a  few  editors  refuse  to  consider 
handscript,  and  issue  printed  notices  to  that  effect. 

What  woman  in  an  office  which  entails  much  corres- 
pondence will  withhold  sympathy  from  the  editor  inflicted 
with  the  script  of  the  average  woman  ?  Growing  are  the 
number  of  women  who  depend  for  livelihood  on  news- 
paper and  magazine  writing,  while  the  name  of  the  occa- 
sional contributor  is  legion.  No  wideawake  club  woman 
has  failed  to  note  the  advantage  of  the  typewritten  address 
and  the  part  "  manifold  copy "  plays  in  spreading  her 
fame  abroad.  Reporters  are  human,  and,  while  they  may 
recognise  that  the  paper  of  Mrs.  Slowgirl  is  a  literary 
gem,  time  is  wanting  to  struggle  through  the  hieroglyphics 
in  which  it  is  embedded.  Consequently,  the  typewritten 
copy  which  Miss  Wideawake  proffers  is  borne  off  in 
triumph,  and  the  latter  has  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  her 
vituperation  made  a  feature  in  the  morning  journal. 

"  But  it  costs  so  much  to  have  copy  typewritten,"  says 
the  space  writer.  "  It  eats  up  the  profits." 

"  It  would  break  me  up,"  objects  the  club  woman, 
scheduled  for  a  score  of  papers. 

"I  know  its  value,"  admits  the  teacher.  "But  a 
machine  takes  up  so  much  room,  and  it  is  noisy." 

There  was  a  time  when  these  objections  would  have 
been  irrefutable.  That  was  before  the  advent  of  the 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  155 

Blickensderfer  No.  5,  which  may  be  had,  with  its  scien- 
tific keyboard,  including  one  extra  typewheel,  one  dozen 
ink  rolls  and  one  tool  outfit,  packed  in  a  polished,  hand- 
portable  hardwood  case,  for  $35.  In  capacity,  speed  and 
practical  efficiency  it  is  the  equal  of  any  typewriter  of  any 
other  make  now  in  the  market.  In  convenience  it  is  unex- 
celled. Therein  lies  its  chief  merit  and  charm  to  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  women.  It  weighs  scarcely  six 
pounds.  It  takes  paper  eight  and  a  half  inches  wide.  It 
does  not  require  a  porter  or  drayman  to  transfer  it  from 
place  to  place.  It  may  rest  on  my  lady's  dressing-table 
without  detracting  from  its  decorativeness,  or  crown  the 
stovetop  of  the  hall-bedroom  scribe.  If  the  unexpected 
arrive,  and  trace  of  the  "  shop  "  be  objectionable,  it  may 
be  readily  concealed  in  the  bureau  drawer.  The  writing 
is  always  in  plain  sight,  and  so  simple  is  the  manipula- 
tion of  the  keyboard  that  no  school  training  is  necessary. 
The  most  stupid  person,  with  application,  can  soon  get 
up  speed.  It  admits  manifolding  with  force  and  clear- 
ness. 

"  I  am  thinking,"  writes  Mr.  Poultney  Bigelow,  "  of 
making  my  '  Blick  '  write  her  own  biography.  She  has 
been  behind  me  on  a  bicycle  in  Spain ;  she  has  bobbed 
over  the  waves  of  Manila  Bay  in  my  canoe  Caribee  ;  she 
has  ridden  in  jinrickishas  and  been  at  the  mercy  of  bag- 
gage-smashers, and  yet  she  ticks  away  as  merrily  as  if 
she  had  never  left  an  office  desk." 

In  leather  travelling-case,  with  pocket  for  stationery,  a 
Blickensderfer  is  a  perpetual  joy  to  women  on  the  move  ; 
and  who  is  stationary  in  these  progressive  times  ?  To 
have  35,000  words  typewritten  costs  $35.  Why  not 
invest  that  sum  in  a  Blickensderfer  No.  5  (The  Blickens- 
derfer Manufacturing  Company,  No.  182  Broadway,  New 
York)  and — be  your  own  typewriter  ? 


156  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

PRIVATE  SECRETARIES. 

Women  Have  a  Peculiar    Tact  Most  Serviceable  in   Such 
Strictly  Confidential  Positions. 

"  WHEN  you  ask  me  about  the  duties  and  qualifications 
necessary  for  a  private  secretary,"  said  a  woman  who  has 
filled  such  a  place  for  fifteen  years,  "  I  suppose  you  mean 
the  secretary  of  a  business  man. 

"  In  these  days  the  secretary  must  be  a  stenographer 
and  typewriter,  though  she  writes  many  letters  that  do 
not  come  under  the  head  of  business  correspondence. 
She  must  be  well  educated  in  ordinary  English  branches, 
and  should  have  some  knowledge  of  French  and  German, 
at  least.  Added  to  this,  two  qualities  that  are  desirable 
for  any  woman  in  a  clerical  position,  or  in  any  position, 
are  absolutely  indispensable  for  the  secretary.  They  are 
discretion  and  a  talent  for  classification  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  a  methodical  mind. 

"  If  she  is  not  discreet,  she  may  unwittingly  reveal  what 
she  should  have  concealed,  and  thus  do  as  much  wrong  in 
effect  as  if  she  had  deliberately  betrayed  a  trust.  *  She  is 
so  diplomatic,'  complained  an  old  friend  on  the  return  of 
a  young  woman  who  had  gone  abroad  as  amanuensis  to  a 
high  official.  *  She  won't  tell  anything.'  But  it  is  better 
to  appear  unduly  reticent  than  to  be  indiscreetly  com- 
municative. 

"  The  secretary  of  a  well-known  literary  man  when 
asked  about  her  employer's  plans  laughingly  quoted,  *  If 
one  knows  it,  it's  i  ;  if  two  know  it,  it's  2  ;  but  if  three 
know  it,  it's  3.'  As  there  are  persons  who  descend  to  the 
kitchen  or  the  laundry  in  search  of  information  who  are 
not  above  questioning  the  neighbour's  cook,  washerwoman 
or  other  domestic  regarding  family  affairs,  so  there  are 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  157 

persons  who  do  not  hesitate  to  seek  knowledge  of  a  man's 
private  or  business  concerns  through  one  who  is  in  his 
confidence,  and  discretion  is  the  more  necessary  because 
direct  questioning  is  not  the  usual  method.  A  few  days 
after  I  took  my  place  my  employer  said  :  '  I  want  you  to 
open  my  business  letters  every  morning,  and  place  them 
ready  for  me  on  my  desk.  My  private  letters  you  will 
leave  unopened.'  '  How  shall  I  be  sure  which  are  private 
letters  ? '  I  inquired.  *  Err  on  the  safe  side,'  was  his 
only  reply  ;  and  I  have  found  the  advice  useful  in  many 
perplexing  situations. 

"  In  addition  to  the  correspondence,  my  principal  duty 
is  the  care  of  all  documents,  the  filing  and  indexing  of 
letters,  reports,  bills,  receipts,  notes,  etc.,  and  keeping  an 
account  of  expenditures.  When  I  transfer  the  contents 
of  a  letter-file  in  its  binding-case  I  make  a  .typewritten 
alphabetical  index  of  names,  dates  and  subjects  and  place 
it  at  the  top  of  the  file.  I  make  similar  indexes 
for  all  documents  that  I  keep  in  files.  When  anything  is 
required  at  a  moment's  notice,  a  glance  at  the  index 
shows  where  it  is,  and  no  time  is  lost  in  searching 
through  several  files.  I  index  the  letter  copying-books  in 
the  same  way,  and,  of  course,  label  all  pigeon-holes  care- 
fully. I  also  keep  an  address-book  and  a  diary.  In  the 
diary  there  is  a  record  of  all  visitors  to  the  office,  and  an 
account  of  important  interviews,  etc.  Not  long  ago  a 
man  who  was  required  to  state  in  court  the  date  of  his 
last  visit  to  New  York  came  to  me  for  assistance, 
as  his  memory  had  failed  on  that  point.  By  turning  to 
the  diary  I  was  able  to  give  him  the  date  of  his  call  at 
our  office." 


158  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


WAGE-EARNING  WITH  THE  PEN. 

An    Army    of    Women    Employed. —  Women    Preferred  in 
Many  Ways. 

IN  purely  clerical  service  (the  performance  of  work 
which  can  be  done  only  with  a  pen)  there  is  an  immense 
field  of  employment  for  women  in  business  houses. 

It  is  true  that  this  work  is  the  simplest  of  any  in  business 
houses,  and  that,  accordingly,  the  pay  is  often  moderate. 
Yet  this  sort  of  work  serves  as  the  means  of  support  for 
tens  of  thousands  of  women,  and  is  often  a  stepping-stone 
to  something  better.  In  Government  departments,  stores, 
newspaper  offices,  the  headquarters  of  many  corporations 
and  small  factories,  insurance  offices  and  a  variety  of 
other  business  concerns  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  writing, 
keeping  of  accounts,  addressing,  copying  and  similar  pen- 
work  which  can  be  done  by  women  as  well  as  by  men,  and 
in  which,  perhaps,  they  give  better  satisfaction  than  men. 

Let  not  an  aspirant  for  a  clerkship  of  this  class  think, 
however,  that  any  woman  can  give  satisfaction  in  such  a 
place.  A  good  and  legible  hand  is,  of  course,  the  one 
indispensable  requisite.  But  beyond  that,  patience, 
accuracy,  painstaking  attention  to  details,  regular  hours, 
respect  for  superiors  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  are  of 
the  highest  importance  ;  and  any  girl  who  is  equal  to 
these  things  will  find  that  her  penmanship  operates  largely 
as  a  means  of  introducing  her  other  business  qualifications 
to  the  attention  of  an  employer. 

Women  have,  as  a  rule,  fewer  financial  responsibilities 
than  men,  and  are  therefore  able  to  work  for  smaller  pay. 
The  small  salary  that  they  require  is  sometimes  the  factor 
which  gains  them  a  place.  But  if  it  were  not  also  true 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  159 

that  they  make  excellent  and  faithful  clerks  they  would 
not  stand  the  ghost  of  a  chance  in  comparison  with  men. 
They  do  not  drink  ;  they  are  honest  ;  they  seldom  talk 
about  the  business  of  their  employers  away  from  the 
office  ;  they  are  attentive  to  the  clients  of  the  house,  and 
they  seem  more  willing  to  stay  a  few  minutes  over  the 
regular  hours  whenever  there  is  a  rush  of  work  and  say 
nothing  about  it.  These  things  cannot  always  be  said  of 
young  men  in  clerical  positions. 

The  pay  varies  in  different  cities  and  in  different  estab- 
lishments. But,  as  a  rule,  a  good  penman  in  the  simplest 
forms  of  clerical  work  will  earn  from  $5  to  $8  a  week  ; 
with  growing  experience  and  the  possession  of  other 
qualities  she  will  earn  in  time  $10  to  $15  a  week.  Our 
cities  are  full  of  women  who  can  earn  from  $12  to  $15  a 
week  whose  routine  duty  is  the  keeping  of  accounts  and  the 
performance  of  other  work  which  can  be  done  only  with 
the  pen,  but  who  also  are  called  upon  to  display  a  little 
judgment  and  fidelity  in  the  general  interests  of  the  estab- 
lishment. There  are  a  few  women  bookkeepers  who  earn 
$15  and  $20  a  week  in  mercantile  establishments  in 
large  cities. 


DOTS,  DASHES,  SWITCHBOARD. 

Women  Earn  Moderate  Salaries. — M.  E.  Randolph  Explaim 
the  Advantages  of  Those  Who  Learn  in  an  Office. 

WOMEN  have  for  years  demonstrated  their  ability  and 
fitness  for  telegraphy.  The  present  outlook,  however,  is 
not  encouraging.  New  inventions  continue  to  bring 
about  changes  that  threaten  vitally  to  affect  telegraphy 
as  a  bread-winning  occupation  for  both  men  and  women. 


160  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

A  recent  invention  makes  it  possible  for  a  large  share  of 
the  work  to  be  done  mechanically,  one  operator  being 
able  to  accomplish  work  which  formerly  required  the 
services  of  four  persons.  If  this  invention  continues  as 
successful  as  its  present  working  promises,  it  will  greatly 
reduce  the  working  force  in  large  offices. 

"  How  can  a  woman  learn  the  profession  ?  "  is  frequently 
asked.  A  thorough  public-school  education  is  an  essential 
foundation  to  success  ;  rapid,  legible  penmanship  is  abso- 
lutely necessary,  likewise  the  gift  to  decipher  any  scrawl 
that  may  be  inflicted  in  the  hurry  and  pressure  of  business. 
There  is  a  school  for  telegraphy  in  Cooper  Union,  New 
York  City,  where  a  woman  may  be  instructed  in  the  art 
and  fitted  for  a  place.  This  school  has  graduated  a 
number  of  operators  who  have  attained  success. 

Less  expensive  than  a  regular  school,  and  generally 
entirely  satisfactory  in  result,  is  instruction  received 
through  a  friend,  a  practical  operator  in  the  business, 
who  can  provide  facilities  for  practice.  In  some  large 
telegraph  offices  boys  and  girls,  who  serve  as  "  pick  up  " 
and  "  distributing"  clerks,  also  pick  up  a  knowledge  of  the 
art.  After  acquiring  a  certain  proficiency  they  are 
allowed  time  and  place  for  practice.  Later  they  are 
tested,  after  the  manner  of  any  one  applying  for  a  place. 
If  they  pass,  their  names  are  entered  on  the  roll  of 
employees  in  the  operating  department.  S&me  of  the  best 
operators  in  the  country  have  learned  in  this  way. 

The  salary  to  begin  with  is  small.  Most  of  the  novices 
work  a  long  time  before  they  receive  $35  or  $40  a  month. 
To  girls  who  have  good  homes  this  is  endurable,  but  to 
the  less  fortunate  it  presents  a  difficult  problem. 

To  a  woman  who  is  well  adapted  for  it  there  is  no  more 
congenial  employment  than  telegraphy.  It  takes  the 
average  woman  a  year  to  acquire  it.  She  starts  with  a 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  161 

salary  of  $25,  possibly  $30  a  month,  and  the  mills  that 
grind  out  advances  in  salaries  "  grind  exceeding  slow  and 
small."  Exceptional  ability  does  not  now  receive  the 
recognition  granted  it  in  former  years.  After  two  years' 
experience  any  boy  or  girl  who  can  satisfactorily  exchange 
one  hundred  and  fifty  messages  a  day  should  receive  from 
$35  to  $40  a  month,  according  to  grade  of  work  performed, 
with  further  increase  of  $5  a  month  each  half-year  until  a 
maximum  salary  is  reached. 

To  an  educated  woman  I  would  say,  become  a  teacher 
in  the  public  schools,  where  faithful  service  is  in  after 
years  rewarded  by  a  pension,  and  where  a  vacation  is 
given  once  a  year. 

The  educated  woman  about  to  choose  an  employment 
should  bear  in  mind  that  in  many  places  vacations  are 
allowed  with  pay.  The  telegrapher  takes  a  vacation  at 
her  own  expense.  There  are,  of  course,  exceptions  to 
this  rule.  Hundreds  of  women  employed  in  brokers'  and 
other  private  offices  in  large  cities  usually  have  shorter 
hours  and  better  salaries.  Such  places  are  only  within 
the  reach  of  expert  operators.  In  the  West  many  women 
are  managers  of  railroad  offices  and  perform  their  im- 
portant duties  with  entire  satisfaction,  while  throughout 
the  country  women  in  charge  of  small  offices  and  having 
the  successful  control  of  interests  intrusted  to  them  are 
living  happy,  contented  lives. 

Fifty  dollars  a  month  is  now  the  maximum  salary  for  a 
woman  operator.  Many  influences  have  combined  to 
lower  salaries.  One  of  the  chief  of  these  is  that  education 
worthy  the  name  is  no  longer  required  of  an  operator.  In 
the  routine  work  of  the  offices  boys  and  girls  learn  the 
location  of  places  and  acquire  a  quickness  of  perception 
and  facility  for  memorizing  that  stand  them  in  good  stead 
when  they  become  operators.  People  having  this  kind  of 


162  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

talent  do  not  feel  the  larger  needs  of  educated  intelli- 
gences, and  are  therefore  content  in  these  circumstances. 
There  is  no  possible  objection  physically  or  morally  to 
women  in  this  profession.  Given  proper  sanitary  environ- 
ment, with  "  restful  seats  " — which  are  vital  factors  in 
preventing  nervous  prostration — with  judicious  indulgence 
in  social  functions,  no  late  hours,  but  plenty  of  sleep,  a 
woman  can  enjoy  the  best  of  health  and  practise  teleg- 
raphy for  years  with  impunity,  if  not  with  great  profit. 

M.  E.  RANDOLPH. 


SOFT  ANSWER  TO  "  HELLO  !  " 

Patient  Courtesy  Goes  Far  to  Make  a  Good  Telephone  Girl. — 
Herbert  Laws  Webb  Details  the  Things  a  Central- 
Office  Recruit  Must  Learn  and  Her  Chances 
of  Advancement. 

JUST  how  the  calculation  is  made  it  is  scarcely  worth 
while  to  show  here,  but  it  is  probably  not  far  out  of  the 
way  to  say  that  at  the  present  time  about  one  out  of 
every  fifteen  hundred  young  American  women  is  a  tele- 
phone operator.  As  the  use  of  the  telephone  service  is 
rapidly  increasing,  this  proportion  is  steadily  going  up,  so 
that  telephone  operating  claims  a  fair  place  for  itself  as  a 
vocation  for  women,  It  is  a  work  for  which  women  are 
particularly  well  fitted.  That  was  found  out  in  the  early 
days  of  the  industry. 

At  first  boys  and  young  men  were  put  to  work  at  the 
switchboard.  But  Young  America  is  not  easily  taught  to 
be  either  civil  or  accurate,  and  telephone  operating  in  its 
early  days  was  accompanied  by  many  unnecessary  diffi- 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  163 

culties.  There  was  only  one  other  sex  to  try,  so  recourse 
was  had  to  the  gentler  half  of  mankind,  not  without  som;-: 
misgivings  on  the  part  of  telephone  managers,  who  thought 
that  machines  needed  men  to  tend  them.  But  girls — that 
is,  most  girls — are  naturally  polite  and  soft-spoken,  and 
politeness  and  soft-speaking  go  a  long  way  over  the  tele- 
phone. Also  girls,  in  spite  of  the  perennial  jokes  in  the 
comic  papers  written  by  men,  can  be  accurate  when  they 
are  taught  to  be  and  are  made  to  keep  it  up  by  judicious 
supervision.  So  the  girl  replaced  the  boy,  and  so  great 
was  the  improvement  that  the  telephone  girl  promptly 
became  an  established  institution. 

That  she  is  the  right  person  in  the  right  place  is  not 
infrequently  brought  to  the  mind  even  of  those  who  have 
never  been  accustomed  to  any  one  else  at  "  central "  by 
the  occasional  experiences  one  has  with  the  pert  office 
boy  or  young  clerk  who  often  appears  at  the  other  end  of 
one's  telephone  line. 

Just  how  the  deft-fingered  young  woman  at  "  central," 
who  presides  over  the  critical  point  in  a  network  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  miles  of  wire,  and  makes  myriads  of 
combinations  a  day,  with  only  a  rare  error,  arrives  at  her 
position  may  be  shown  by  a  description  of  the  working  of 
the  traffic  department  of  the  New  York  Telephone  Com- 
pany, one  of  the  largest  and  best-organized  telephone 
concerns  in  the  country. 

The  traffic  department  is  the  branch  of  the  company's 
organization  responsible  for  the  operation  of  the  sub- 
scribers' lines,  and  to  the  superintendent  of  this  depart- 
ment the  embryo  operator  must  direct  her  steps.  Few 
applicants  have  had  previous  experience — practically  all 
are  absolute  beginners — so  that  the  only  qualifications  to 
be  inquired  about  are  those  that  will  insure  the  beginner 
a  fair  chance  to  qualify  as  an  expert  operator.  These 


164  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

are  good  eyesight,  good  hearing,  distinct  enunciation, 
fair  penmanship  and  general  neatness.  At  least  medium 
height  is  required,  and  a  bit  over  is  an  advantage.  Re- 
cruits should  be  at  the  teachable  age,  say,  between  seven- 
teen and  twenty-one,  and  should  have  a  good  common- 
school  education.  Of  course,  satisfactory  references  as  to 
general  good  character  are  indispensable,  and  are  always 
forthcoming. 

With  this  not  very  formidable  list  of  qualifications  to 
face  there  are  naturally  always  plenty  of  applicants,  and 
of  these  an  eligible  list  of  goodly  length  is  kept  on  file  in 
the  office  of  the  superintendent  of  traffic.  To  be  placed 
on  this  list  is  as  far  as  the  would-be  operator  gets  at  first. 
When  vacancies  occur,  or  when,  through  increase  of  sub- 
scribers, additions  must  be  made  to  the  operating  force, 
which  is,  indeed,  the  normal  condition  of  the  New  York 
Telephone  Company,  letters  are  sent  out  to  the  eligibles, 
requesting  them  to  report  for  duty  if  they  are  still  of  the 
same  mind. 

The  beginner  is  normally  appointed  to  the  night  force, 
whose  work  is  naturally  light,  and  is  put  on  the  payrolls 
from  the  day  she  starts  to  learn  the  business.  Not  a  very 
large  pay  at  first,  but  still  a  definite  weekly  salary  during 
a  time  which  varies  with  the  natural  capacity  of  the 
learner,  but  averages  about  three  months,  when  the  be- 
ginner can  be  trusted  with  no  actual  operating,  but  is 
simply  watching,  listening  and  learning. 

The  training  process  is  gradual.  At  first  the  learner 
sits  close  up  to  a  busy  operator  and  watches  the  work. 
Wearing  one  of  the  regular  operators'  head  telephones, 
she  listens  to  the  calls  coming  in  and  notices  how  the 
operator  disposes  of  them  ;  how  she  handles  the  various 
plugs  and  cords  and  keys  and  little  indicators  of  which 
the  complicated  switchboard  is  made  up.  Verbal  instruc- 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  165 

tion  is  given  her  as  to  the  use  of  the  different  parts  of  the 
switchboard,  and  gradually  she  learns  to  follow  all  that 
goes  on.  She  learns  that  when  an  indicator  falls  a  sub- 
scriber has  called,  and  that  the  operator  must  put  a  plug 
in  a  certain  hole  and  promptly  say  into  the  transmitter, 
"What  number?"  The  number  being  given,  another 
plug  is  seized  and  pressed  into  a  hole  picked  out  among 
ranges  of  hundreds  of  holes  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
board.  A  key  is  pressed  which  rings  the  bell  of  the 
second  number,  and  the  two  plugs  are  left  in  position 
until  another  indicator  falls,  signifying  that  the  subscrib- 
ers connected  have  rung  off ;  the  two  plugs  are  then 
pulled  out  and  dropped  in  their  sockets. 

The  learner  sees  every  variety  of  this  simple  operation, 
and,  hearing  through  her  head  telephone  the  demands  and 
replies  of  subscriber  and  operator,  soon  acquires  an  intel- 
ligent idea  of  what  is  going  on.  In  a  large  system  like 
that  of  New  York  she  has  a  good  deal  to  learn,  as  out  of 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  telephone  connections  made 
every  twenty-four  hours  only  a  small  minority  are  the 
simple  connection  described  above,  beginning  and  ending 
in  the  same  exchange.  Subscribers  talk  all  over  the  city, 
and,  indeed,  all  over  the  country,  so  the  operator  has  to 
learn  the  position  of  the  various  wires  that  lead  from  one 
exchange  to  a  dozen  others,  and  to  the  suburban  and  long- 
distance switch-boards.  She  must  be  able  to  connect, 
say,  a  Cortlandt  subscriber  not  only  with  other  Cortlandt 
numbers,  but  with  numbers  in  Broad,  Spring,  Eighteenth 
St.,  Thirty-eighth  St.,  Harlem,  Westchester,  Yonkers, 
Brooklyn,  Jersey  City,  Elizabeth,  Buffalo,  Boston,  Chicago 
or  any  one  of  a  thousand  other  exchanges,  and  she  must 
be  able  to  start  the  connection  in  the  right  way  without 
an  instant's  loss  of  time. 

Of  course,  to  reach  this  point  takes  long  practice,  and 


166  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

our  learner  has  to  acquire  the  many  details  by  degrees. 
After  a  period  of  instruction  and  observation,  which  gen- 
erally lasts  a  month  or  so,  she  takes  a  turn  at  night  duty 
under  the  wing  of  an  experienced  operator,  and  so  gets  to 
a  practical  knowledge  of  the  work.  After  about  three 
months'  careful  tuition  and  training  of  this  sort,  with 
coaching  from  an  old  hand,  a  beginner  is  usually  qualified 
to  take  a  position  at  the  switch-board  where  the  work  is 
light,  and  is  then  enrolled  as  a  regular  operator.  After 
that  her  future  is  in  her  own  hands,  and  her  progress 
depends  on  the  rapidity  with  which  she  acquires  sufficient 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  the  work  to  become  an  expert 
capable  of  handling  a  busy  position,  where  calls  for  all 
points  of  the  compass  rain  in  thick  and  fast  from  9  to  5 
o'clock  every  working  day.  Application,  coolness,  pa- 
tience and  quickness  will  soon  bring  the  operator  who  has 
properly  mastered  the  rudiments  of  the  work  to  this 
point. 

As  vacancies  occur  in  the  day  force,  the  most  compe- 
tent night  operators  are  transferred  to  day  work,  begin- 
ning at  first  with  light  positions,  and  working  up  gradually 
to  the  busier  positions  intrusted  to  the  more  expert  opera- 
tors. What  are  known  as  "trunk  "  positions,  where  the 
operation  of  the  trunk  lines  that  join  the  different 
exchanges  together  is  controlled,  require  the  most  expert 
operating.  A  steady  stream  of  traffic  flows  here  from 
morning  till  night,  and  it  requires  coolness  of  head  and 
quickness  of  ear  and  eye  to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid-fire 
demand  for  connections  that  pours  along  the  lines  through- 
out the  business  day. 

From  the  ranks  of  the  regular  operators  promotions 
are  made  through  the  grade  of  senior  operator  to  super- 
visor. The  supervisor  has  general  charge  of  a  certain 
section  of  the  board,  watches  the  work  of  the  operators 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  167 

in  her  division,  helps  out  any  one  of  them  who  gets  into 
difficulties,  secures  strict  attention  to  the  work  from  all 
hands,  and  preserves  discipline  and  order.  At  each  division 
of  the  board  the  most  competent  regular  operator  is 
appointed  senior  operator,  and  the  senior  operator  takes 
charge  when  the  supervisor  is  away..  The  next  position 
to  supervisor  is  assistant  chief  operator,  of  whom  there 
are  several  in  a  large  exchange,  working  under  a  chief 
operator,  which  is  the  highest  position  in  the  operating 
force,  except  that  of  the  manager  of  the  exchange,  who  is 
the  captain  of  the  ship  and  belongs  to  the  sterner  sex. 
The  chief  operator  has  general  charge  of  the  whole  oper- 
ating force  of  an  exchange  under  the  direction  of  the 
exchange  manager,  who  is  responsible  for  the  efficiency  of 
his  exchange  to  the  superintendent  of  traffic. 

From  this  brief  sketch  it  will  be  seen  that  the  budding 
telephone  operator  has  quite  a  scope  for  advancement. 
She  is  taught  her  profession  by  her  employers,  who  pay 
her  a  salary  while  teaching  her  the  work.  She  can  then 
become  a  night  operator,  a  day  operator,  an  expert  sub- 
scriber operator,  a  trunk  operator,  a  senior  operator,  a 
supervisor,  an  assistant  chief  operator,  and  finally  a  chief 
operator,  the  executive  officer  of  the  exchange.  An 
increase  of  salary  goes  with  each  promotion,  until  finally 
a  respectable  figure  is  reached. 

The  comfort  of  the  operators  is  well  looked  after. 
The  hours  of  duty  of  the  day  force  are  from  8  o'clock  to 
6,  and  of  the  night  force  from  7  o'clock  to  7.  The  day 
operators  have  a  half-hour  relief  for  luncheon,  and  an 
extra  relief  of  about  twenty  minutes  in  the  morning  and  in 
the  afternoon,  so  that  the  periods  of  actual  duty  at  the 
switch-boards  are  well  broken  up.  The  night  operators 
have  three  hours'  relief  during  the  night.  At  every  ex- 
change commodious  quarters  are  provided  for  the  operators, 


i68  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

consisting  of  a  well-fitted  cloak-room,  a  dining-room  and 
a  reading-room,  with  generally  a  sick  bay  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  those  temporarily  indisposed.  In  the  dining- 
room,  which  is  in  charge  of  a  matron,  tea  and  coffee,  boil- 
ing water,  etc.,  are  supplied  to  the  operators  free  of  charge. 
The  reading-room  is  provided  with  magazines  and  daily 
and  weekly  papers,  so  that  the  time  of  rest  need  hang 
heavily  on  no  one's  hands. 

The  regular  operating  force  is  drawn  on  frequently 
nowadays,  so  refined  are  the  subdivisions  of  the  telephone 
service  becoming,  to  supply  operators  for  the  numerous 
branch  exchanges  that  have  lately  sprung  up  all  over  New 
York.  So  large  is  the  use  of  the  telephone  service  in 
many  offices  and  buildings  that  no  arrangement  of  lines 
ending  in  single  telephones  can  adequately  deal  with  it. 
The  remedy  is  found  in  the  branch  exchange,  a  reproduc- 
tion on  a  small  scale  of  the  regular  telephone  exchange. 
A  small  switch-board  is  installed  in  the  premises  and  con- 
nected by  a  number  of  lines  to  the  nearest  main  exchange, 
and  from  the  small  switch-board  branch  out  lines  to  the 
different  offices  or  departments  to  be  served.  Of  course, 
the  switch-board  needs  an  operator,  and  naturally  the  best 
operator  to  get  is  one  familiar  with  the  working  of  the 
general  system.  So  all  over  New  York  you  will  find 
branch  exchanges,  in  large  offices  of  all  kinds,  in  banks, 
hotels  and  apartment-houses,  where  the  switch-boards, 
which  deal  with  a  prodigious  amount  of  telephone  service 
every  day,  are  presided  over  by  a  deft  and  trim  graduate 
of  the  New  York  Telephone  Company's  traffic  depart- 
ment. 

HERBERT  LAWS  WEBB. 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  169 


PAY  OF  TELEPHONE  GIRLS. 

TELEPHONE  girls  are  not  well  paid.  The  reason  is 
that  the  duties  are  easily  learned,  the  work  is  not 
arduous,  and  there  are  many  applicants. 

At  first  a  girl  receives  $3  a  week,  as  a  rule,  and  some- 
times there  is  a  gradual  rise  to  $6  or  $8,  but  the  salary  is 
never  increased  suddenly  or  rapidly.  The  average  pay  is 
about  $5  a  week. 

For  those  women  who  supervise  the  labours  of  a  force 
of  telephone  girls  the  weekly  salary  may  be  as  large  as 
$15,  although  few  command  more  than  $10  and  $12  a 
week. 

The  hours  of  work  are  irregular,  because  the  girls 
relieve  one  another  in  much  the  same  way  that  policeman 
do.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the  sentiment  in  favour  of  a 
movement  for  shorter  hours  is  growing.  Girls  of  a  ner- 
vous temperament  find  answering  calls  and  "  Introducing 
callers  "  trying  work,  and  the  nervous  tension  is  not  les- 
sened by  the  steel  band  worn  on  the  head. 


CLERKSHIPS  IN  PUBLIC  OFFICES. 

Many  of  Them  Now  Filled  Only  after  Civil  Service 
Examinations. 

THE  public  offices  in  cities,  State  capitals  and  Washing- 
ton give  employment  to  many  women  as  clerks,  stenog- 
raphers, accountants,  etc.  Salaries  range  from  about 
$500  a  year  to  $1,200.  Appointments  were  formerly  due 
almost  entirely  to  political  influence.  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent they  are  now  made  largely  on  merit,  although  there 


170  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

is  sometimes  room  for  influence,  all  other  things  being 
equal. 

Civil  Service  rules  can  be  obtained  from  the  heads  of 
departments  or  the  Civil  Service  commissions.  There  is 
always  a  mass  of  information  on  this  point  in  "  The 
Tribune  Almanac "  in  each  year.  Seekers  for  appoint- 
ments may  obtain  some  needed  information  from  that 
source. 

In  New  York  City  there  is  a  semi-annual  examination 
for  clerkships.  In  1897  fifteen  out  of  the  twenty-eight 
junior  clerks  appointed  were  women.  There  are  also 
matrons  to  be  chosen  for  some  of  the  public  institutions. 
Applications  should  be  made  in  one's  handwriting  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  New  York 
City,  and  the  proper  blanks  for  an  application  will  be 
returned.  Each  woman  is  also  required  to  furnish  certifi- 
cates from  four  reputable  citizens  who  believe  that  she  is 
fit  to  enter  the  Civil  Service.  The  secretary  notifies  ap- 
plicants of  the  hour,  day  and  place  of  the  examinations. 
No  one  who  falls  below  an  average  of  70  per  cent,  or  who 
receives  "  o "  on  any  subject  is  placed  on  the  eligible 
list. 

When  vacancies  occur,  the  three  names  having  the 
highest  average  are  sent  to  the  officer  having  the  power 
of  appointment.  If  two  have  the  same  average,  priority 
of  application  is  considered. 

The  complete  code  of  Civil  Service  rules  in  each  city 
and  State  is  not  difficult  to  obtain.  In  the  case  of 
United  States  Government  positions,  the  applicant  may 
find  it  convenient  to  ask  for  the  rules  through  the 
Member  of  Congress  from  the  district  in  which  she  lives. 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  171 


WOMEN  IN  POST-OFFICES. 

Clerks,  Carriers  and  Postmistresses. —  Women   Are  Strongly 
Represented  in  This  Branch  of  the  Government  Service. 

IN  the  New  York  City  Post-office  a  number  of  women 
clerks  are  employed,  and  the  places  they  hold  offer  good 
salaries  and  pleasant  work.  In  the  stamp  department 
are  two  women.  They  are  the  only  ones  of  the  female 
force  who  come  in  contact  with  the  general  public.  All 
the  others  have  purely  clerical  places. 

Eight  women  have  desks  in  the  money-order  depart- 
ment. 

Five  are  employed  in  the  inquiry  department,  where 
missing  letters  and  packages  are  traced,  Dead  Letter 
Office  matter  dispatched  and  stray  letters  sent  to  their 
right  destinations.  Singular  mental  vagaries  elect  that  a 
certain  number  of  letters  each  year  shall  be  posted  with 
some  portion  of  the  address  lacking.  Every  year  just  so 
many  absent-minded  correspondents  neglect  to  write  the 
street  and  number,  the  name  of  the  town  or  State,  on 
their  envelopes.  All  of  these  letters  go  to  the  inquiry  de- 
partment, some  to  have  the  address  completed,  and  the 
more  hopeless  to  be  sent  to  the  Dead  Letter  Office  at 
Washington. 

In  the  mail  inspection  and  rating  department,  two  out 
of  thirteen  clerks  are  women.  Their  business  is  to  exam- 
ine mail  matter  prepaid  at  less  than  regular  rates,  pack- 
ages of  doubtful  grade,  and  suspicious  matter  of  every 
description. 

Besides  these  regular  clerkships,  several  places  as 
stenographers  and  typewriters  are  open  to  women. 

All  the  sub-stations  of  the  New  York  Post-office  em- 


i72  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ploy  women  clerks,  and  these  are  sworn  into  the  postal 
service  in  the  usual  manner.  They  do  not  take  the  Civil 
Service  examination,  but  are  hired  by  the  superintendent 
of  the  sub-station,  who  is  responsible  for  their  good 
behaviour  and  competency. 

The  women  in  the  main  Post-office  must  be  eighteen 
years  old,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  sufficiently 
well  educated  to  pass  what  is  known  as  the  Second  Grade 
Civil  Service  examination.  This  is  rather  less  difficult 
than  the  one  required  for  admission  to  the  Depart- 
ment in  Washington.  It  is  the  same  as  taken  by  men 
clerks  and  letter-carriers,  and  includes  spelling,  simple 
arithmetic,  letter-writing,  penmanship,  copying  from  plain 
copy,  geography  of  the  United  States,  and  reading 
addresses.  This  last  consists  of  reading  at  sight  twenty- 
five  cards  on  which  are  written  names  and  addresses. 
Speed  and  accuracy  are  equally  counted  in  marking  this 
exercise. 

Appointments  are  made  by  the  Postmaster  with  the 
approval  of  the  Postmaster-General.  The  appointee  first 
enters  the  service  as  a  supply  for  a  sick  or  absent  clerk, 
and  takes  her  permanent  place  as  a  vacancy  occurs. 

The  hours  are  from  8:30  A.  M.  to  5  P.  M.,  and  the  sal- 
aries range  from  $600  to  $1,200  a  year,  according  to  the 
work  and  the  length  of  service. 

Removal  from  the  Civil  Service  is  only  for  cause,  and 
Post-office  clerks  usually  hold  their  places  a  long  time. 
This  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  in  the  last  seven  years 
not  more  than  five  appointments  have  been  made  in  the 
New  York  office.  One  woman  has  been  at  her  desk  in 
the  inquiry  department  for  twenty-five  years. 

In  other  cities  and  towns  of  the  United  States  the  post- 
office  force  almost  always  includes  a  certain  number  of 
women  clerks. 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  173 

The  Chicago  office  employs  no  less  than  118,  four  of 
whom  are  coloured. 

In  the  smaller  cities  women  not  infrequently  have  entire 
charge  of  the  stamp  department,  and  even  the  registered- 
letter  and  money-order  departments.  As  a  rule,  they  are 
paid  as  well  as  men  in  similar  places., 

In  the  country  districts  postmistresses  are  nearly  as 
common  as  postmasters. 

There  are  a  few  dauntless  women  who  carry  the  mail 
from  one  stage  station  to  another  through  all  the  storm 
and  shine  of  the  year.  Miss  Louisa  Marcome  has  for 
four  years  made  two  trips  daily  between  Curtisville  and 
Stockbridge,  Mass.  She  carries  passengers  as  well  as 
mail,  and  manages  an  express  business  at  Curtisville. 

Miss  Olive  Oakes  carries  the  mail  between  North 
Egremont  and  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  a  distance  of  six 
miles.  As  she  lives  half-way  between  the  two  villages, 
and  is  obliged  to  make  two  trips  every  day,  this  young 
woman  is  kept  going  almost  constantly.  Miss  Oakes's 
father  had  the  mail  contract,  and  she  took  it  up  during 
his  illness,  and  has  continued  it  since  his  death. 

Mrs.  Joseph  Schwartzenberger  travels  four  times  daily 
between  Hicksville,  Penn.,  and  Jericho,  two  miles  distant ; 
and  Mrs.  George  Schimmel  has  the  route  between  Hicks- 
ville and  Plainview,  making  one  round  trip  every  day. 
These  country  mail-carriers  appear  to  enjoy  their  work  in 
spite  of  its  hardships  and  the  smallness  of  the  pay,  in 
most  cases  less  than  $100  a  year.  Sometimes  the  stipend 
is  increased  by  carrying  freight  and  passengers.  The 
appointment  of  postmistresses  and  mail-carriers  is  made 
in  the  Department  at  Washington. 

C.  VAN  COTT. 


i74  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


CLERKS  WHO  HAVE  RISEN. 

THERE  are  clerks  who  might  have  risen,  and  many  who 
have  actually  done  so.  The  idea  upon  which  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  was  founded,  and  by  the  successful  use 
of  which  other  men  afterward  became  rich,  was  thought 
of  and  wrought  out  first  by  a  private  secretary,  who  did 
not  have  the  confidence  to  undertake  the  scheme.  He 
was  one  who  might  have  risen.  To  practical  people,  men 
or  women,  who  are  serving  in  a  business  house,  a  good 
idea  often  occurs,  which  is  of  substantial  advantage  to  the 
business,  and  a  few  such  happy  thoughts  will  take  any 
clerk  from  an  inconspicuous  position  and  result  in  pro- 
motion, sometimes  even  in  an  offer  of  a  partnership, 
sometimes  in  establishing  the  clerk  in  business  for  himself. 

The  majority  of  men  and  women  must  begin  their  ca- 
reers as  clerks  or  employees,  with  no  special  responsibility 
beyond  the  duty  of  performing  their  daily  tasks  con- 
scientiously and  well.  In  all  the  great  railroad  and  other 
corporations,  in  real  estate,  brokerage  and  banking  offices, 
and  in  thousands  of  other  lines  of  business,  most  of  the 
successful  operators  on  thair  own  account,  or  highly  paid 
officials,  began  in  the  role  of  simple  clerks. 

There  is  a  case  in  Chicago  of  a  woman  who  was  first 
the  clerk  and  later,  by  reason  of  her  sound,  good  sense 
and  energy,  the  business  assistant  of  a  prosperous  man  of 
business.  She  had  the  good  fortune  to  win  the  regard  of 
her  employer  to  such  an  extent  that  he  left  her  his  entire 
fortune  at  his  death  a  few  years  ago,  and  she  is  now  be- 
coming known  as  one  of  the  leading  philanthropists  of  the 
city.  Few  women  clerks  can  hope  to  inherit  their  em- 
ployer's fortune.  That  is  too  much  to  expect.  It  is  not 
every  business  man  who  is  so  entirely  alone  in  the  world 


CLERKS  AND  OPERATORS.  175 

that  his  trusted  clerk  and  business  assistant  is  the  one 
finally  selected  as  the  most  worthy  heir.  Yet  there  is  a 
point  which  it  will  do  no  harm  to  bear  in  mind,  that  clerks 
whose  services  are  actually  valuable  to  the  business  are 
often  remembered  in  the  wills  of  their  employers.  A 
noteworthy  case  was  that  of  Henry  L.  Pierce,  of  Boston, 
who  died  not  long  ago  and  gave  handsome  sums  of  money 
in  his  will  to  all  his  principal  and  most  useful  employees, 
sums  sufficient  in  several  cases  to  set  a  man  up  in  business. 

However,  it  is  not  advised  that  any  clerk  shall  expect 
any  material  advantage  in  this  direction.  A  woman  may 
sometimes  marry  her  employer,  but  she  will  do  better  in 
the  long  run  and  in  the  majority  of  cases  to  make  herself 
valuable  to  the  employer,  and  by  her  intelligence,  interest 
in  the  business,  economy  and  suggestiveness  aid  to  make 
the  business  go.  Promotion  to  places  of  responsibility, 
good  salaries  and  opportunities  for  investment  come  in 
that  way,  and  these  are  practically  far  more  important  in 
most  cases  than  anything  else. 

Opportunity  comes  to  clerks  who  are  on  the  lookout 
for  it,  and  a  subordinate  position  will  be  occupied  by  a 
beginner  only  as  long  as  she  is  fit  for  nothing  else. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS. 

WOMEN   PASTORS. 

One  of  Them  Possesses  the  Title  of  D.  D.— There  Are  Many 

Women  Pastors  and  Some  Distinguished  for  Tact  as 

Well  as  Eloquence. 

IN  a  recent  magazine  article  the  Rev.  Anna  Shaw  gives 
some  interesting  data  concerning  woman's  work  in  the 
ministry  and  her  particular  fitness  for  this  kind  of  work. 

Although  statistics  are,  of  course,  incomplete  on  the 
subject,  it  appears  that  the  society  having  the  greatest 
number  of  women  pastors  or  preachers  is  that  of  the 
Friends,  a  denomination  more  strict  in  all  matters  of 
Church  discipline  than  almost  any  other,  although  perfect 
equality  among  its  men  and  women  preachers  is  and 
always  has  been  maintained.  Another  thing  noticed  about 
the  Friends  is  that  the  proportion  of  men  to  women  in 
their  congregations  is  greater  than  in  any  other  Church. 

One  of  the  first  women  to  be  ordained  as  a  minister  was 
the  Rev.  Lydia  Sexton,  who  belonged  to  the  United 
Brethren,  and  she  began  her  work  in  1851,  continuing  it 
most  actively  until  1890.  Another  of  the  pioneer  women 
in  this  field  was  the  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown,  since  married 
to  Mr.  Blackwell.  She  was  graduated  from  a  theological 
school  in  1850,  but  was  refused  ordination.  However,  she 
preached  wherever  opportunity  offered,  and  in  1853  was 
ordained  by  the  Congregational  denomination  in  New 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  177 

York  State,  and  engaged   actively  in  church   work   for 
many  years. 

Mrs.  Brown-Blackwell  is  at  present  living  in  New  York 
City,  and,  although  her  active  career  is  about  over,  her 
presence  is  always  at  the  command  of  any  needy  cause. 

At  the  present  time  the  Congregational  Church  has 
something  over  thirty  women  regularly  ordained  in  its 
ministry,  among  the  more  prominent  of  them  being  the 
Rev.  Annis  Ford  Eastman,  who  is  assistant  pastor  of  a 
church  in  Elmira,  N.  Y. 

In  the  Baptist  denomination  there  are  few  ordained 
women  preachers,  although  many  women  have  worked 
successfully  in  evangelistic  work  in  this  Church.  Chi- 
cago, Pittsburg,  Kansas,  Nebraska  and  Michigan  have  all 
women  ministers  in  Baptist  churches.  While  the  rules  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  strictly  prohibit  women  from 
ordination,  and  even  go  so  far  as  to  forbid  ministers 
inviting  women  to  speak  in  their  pulpits,  a  law  which  is 
ignored  very  often,  now  that  Miss  Briggs  has  so  recently 
been  graduated  at  the  head  of  her  class  in  Union  Semi- 
nary, something  may  be  done  to  modify  this  rule,  bringing 
it  in  closer  conformity  with  public  opinion  on  the  subject. 
Besides  Miss  Briggs  there  are  fourteen  other  women 
students  in  the  theological  department  of  Union. 

The  only  woman  who  ever  received  the  title  of  D.  D. 
is  the  Rev.  Augusta  J.  Chapin,  who  began  preaching  in 
1859,  being  regularly  ordained  by  the  Universalist  Church, 
which  has  always  opened  its  doors  wide  for  the  admission 
of  women  into  full  fellowship.  She  was  graduated  from 
both  Lombard  and  Michigan  universities,  and  in  1893  the 
former  conferred  upon  her  the  honour  of  the  D.  D.  degree. 
Besides  holding  a  number  of  pastorates,  she  has  been  a 
wide  lecturer,  and  was  chairman  of  the  Woman's  General 
Committee  of  Religious  Congresses  at  the  World's  Fair. 


178  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

The  Universalists  have    fifty-seven    ordained   women    at 
present,  among  them  being  many  gifted  speakers. 

The  Rev.  Phebe  A.  Hanaford,  born  a  Quaker,  but 
induced  by  Miss  Brown  to  enter  the  field  of  church  work, 
was  ordained  in  1868,  and  since  that  time  has  filled  a 
number  of  pulpits. 

Among  the  other  churches  in  the  country  under  the 
pastorate  of  women  is  the  People's  Church  of  Kalamazoo, 
Mich.  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane,  who  was  ordained  in 
1889,  at  once  took  charge  of  this  church,  and  since  that 
time  a  $35,000  building  has  been  built,  free  from  any 
debt.  Meetings  are  held  every  day,  and  the  church  sup- 
ports a  free  kindergarten,  a  school  of  household  science, 
a  gymnasium  and  a  manual  training  school. 

Two  young  women  who  completed  their  studies  in  Ox- 
ford, England,  the  Rev.  Marion  Murdoch  and  the  Rev. 
Florence  Buck,  have  jointly  the  charge  of  Unity  Church, 
Cleveland,  Ohio.  This  church  also  has  a  free  kindergar- 
ten, a  loan  library,  mothers'  classes,  boys'  clubs  and  many 
study  and  sewing  classes. 

In  the  Methodist  Protestant  denomination  several  wo- 
men have  been  ordained,  among  them  Mrs.  Anna  Howard 
Shaw,  who  enjoys  an  enviable  reputation  both  as  a  preacher 
and  a  lecturer.  She  is  a  graduate  of  the  Boston  Univer- 
sity, and  was  at  first  refused  ordination  by  the  New  Eng- 
land Conference,  but  in  1880  was  ordained  at  Tarrytown, 
N.  Y. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  never  ordained 
women  as  ministers,  although  it  has  gladly  availed  itself 
of  their  work  in  its  missionary  and  evangelical  fields,  hav- 
ing many  brilliant  speakers  in  that  work,  whose  good 
deeds  and  efficient  labours  are  not  excelled  anywhere. 

The  first  time  the  marriage  service  was  performed  in 
Massachusetts  by  a  woman  preacher — the  Rev.  Olympia 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  179 

Brown,  belonging  to  the  Universalist  Church— the  legality 
of  the  proceeding  was  questioned,  and  finally  had  to  be 
settled  by  the  Legislature  of  that  State. 

Mrs.  Shaw  regrets  the  lack  of  cordiality  shown  to 
woman  in  her  work  in  the  pulpit,  as  she  has  so  thoroughly 
shown  her  fitness  for  the  work.  She  says  the  restraint 
in  manner  and  the  lack  of  generous  support,  due  to  old- 
time  prejudice,  react  on  the  women  when  they  under- 
take the  work,  and  in  consequence  they  feel  hampered, 
often  not  being  able  to  do  their  best. 

So  far  as  my  own  experience  is  concerned,  I  have  met 
with  the  most  cordial  and  hospitable  treatment  in  the 
Universalist  Church,  where  ordained  women  do  indeed 
occupy  a  position  of  equal  dignity  and  power  with  or- 
dained men. 

The  only  time  I  am  ever  conscious  of  being  a  "  woman 
minister  "  is  when  I  wander  into  some  church  fold  where 
the  women  are  considered  fit  to  bear  the  heavy  burdens 
of  church  work,  but  unfit  to  exercise  the  right  to  vote  or 
to  claim  the  privilege  of  ordination. 

As  an  example  of  how  women,  when  allowed  to  join 
heartily  in  the  work,  succeed,  note  the  world-famed  work 
of  women  in  the  Salvation  Army,  where  both  Emma 
Booth-Tucker  and  Maud  Ballington  Booth  have  had  joint 
command  with  their  husbands.  And  as  it  is  conceded 
that  the  great  number  of  church  goers  and  church  mem- 
bers are  women,  it  would  most  certainly  seem  that  in  the 
quiet  ministration  of  the  pastor  women  could  be  fully  as 
able  to  reach  the  hearts  of  their  parishioners  and  to  give 
to  them  aid  and  comfort,  which  have  come  to  be  as  much 
a  part  of  the  ministerial  duty  as  sermons. 

Woman  takes  naturally  to  the  spiritual  side  of  life  ; 
child-training  and  mind  culture  seem  her  special  work, 
and  in  the  Sunday-school  and  evangelical  work  of  the 


i8o  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Church  she  has  been  doing  her  part  from  the  beginning  of 
the  Church.  The  future  will  enlarge  her  scope  and  open 
the  pulpits  of  all  denominations  to  her. 

The  ministry  is  one  of  those  fields  of  effort  where  the 
characteristics  of  patience,  tact,  trustfulness  and,  above 
all,  love  are  in  demand,  and  where  women  seem  peculiarly 
fitted  to  perform  a  much-needed  work.  I  believe  that 
the  ministry  is  the  broadest,  loftiest  field  on  earth  for  the 
exercise  of  noble  and  helpful  characteristics.  No  field 
furnishes  so  great  an  opportunity  for  reaching  all  classes, 
all  ages  and  both  sexes  with  the  gospel  of  purity,  honesty 
and  equality  for  which  the  world  is  famishing. 

The  minister  is  called  into  the  very  heart  of  the  home 
in  those  most  sacred  experiences  of  birth,  marriage  and 
death,  when  hearts  are  tender  for  the  sowing  of  good 
seed,  and  the  minister  who  can  be  untrue  to  such  a  trust, 
careless  of  such  an  opportunity  and  unappreciative  of 
such  a  privilege — well,  I  do  not  know  what  manner  of 
man  he  could  be.  I  do  know  that  he  could  never  be  a 
woman. 

ALICE  K.  WRIGHT. 


GIRL  DISCIPLES  OF  GALEN. 

How  to  Become  a  Physician.—  Woman  no  Longer  a  Stranger 
in  Medicine. 

OF  the  many  occupations  to  which  women  have  recently 
been  admitted,  in  none  is  there  a  greater  demand  for  her 
services  and  in  which  she  has  more  proved  her  ability 
than  the  medical  profession.  The  path  is  not  always 
smooth  ;  there  are  ruts  to  be  avoided,  temptations  resisted 
and  mountains  to  be  climbed  ;  but  everywhere  we  find 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  181 

bridges  erected  and  stepping-stones  placed  by  those  who 
have  led  the  way. 

To-day,  at  least  in  our  larger  cities  and  towns,  there  is 
no  novelty  about  the  presence  of  a  woman  physician  and 
no  question  about  her  rights.  She  is  admitted  to  the 
medical  societies  on  an  equal  footing  with  her  professional 
brethren,  and  her  services  are  demanded  by  law  in  many 
institutions  for  women  and  children. 

Women  physicians  are  found  in  office  and  general 
practice.  They  are  in  the  missionary  field  at  home  and 
abroad — in  China,  India,  Persia,  Japan,  Burmah,  Syria 
and  Egypt.  They  are  in  attendance  at  the  leading  schools 
and  colleges  for  women.  They  are  on  the  lecture  plat- 
form and  in  working  girls'  clubs,  asylums  and  prisons, 
and  wherever  they  can  aid  and  alleviate. 

These  conditions  have  been  made  possible  through  the 
endeavour  of  the  pioneer  women  in  medicine,  who  so 
valiantly  championed  their  cause  and,  proving  its  justice, 
opened  the  way  for  the  march  of  progress.  To  them  we 
owe  a  reverence  and  gratitude  deeper  than  we  can  appre- 
ciate. They  founded  our  medical  colleges  and  hospitals 
and  maintained  them. 

There  is  now  no  dearth  of  schools  where  a  woman  may 
receive  a  medical  education.  The  Woman's  Medical 
College  of  Pennsylvania  (the  first  medical  college  in  the 
world  regularly  organized  for  the  education  of  women  for 
the  medical  profession)  was  founded  at  Philadelphia  in 
1850.  In  1865  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  the  New 
York  Infirmary  was  established  in  New  York  City.  Women 
are  now  received  at  medical  schools  in  Chicago,  Baltimore, 
Syracuse,  Buffalo  and  Cincinnati,  and  at  Johns  Hopkins 
University  and  the  Universities  of  Michigan  and  Cali- 
fornia. 

Candidates  for  matriculation  must  be  at  least  eighteen 


i82  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

years  old.  In  all  schools  they  are  required  to  present 
evidence  of  a  preparatory  education  before  entering  the 
special  department  of  medicine.  A  degree  of  arts  from  a 
school  of  standing  or  a  Regents'  certificate  from  the 
University  of  New  York  will  be  accepted  in  lieu  of  an 
entrance  examination,  and  in  some  schools  a  teacher's 
certificate  from  a  county  superintendent  of  schools  will 
exempt  the  applicant  from  an  examination,  provided  that 
it  embraces  Latin,  algebra,  physics,  arithmetic  and  Eng- 
lish. The  course  in  colleges  of  equal  standing  covers  a 
period  of  four  years  (eight  months  each),  and  the  instruc- 
tion includes  lectures,  recitations,  laboratory,  chemical 
and  practical  work.  An  average  of  $150  will  cover  the 
annual  expense  for  matriculation  and  lecture  tickets,  in- 
cluding dissecting  material  and  admission  to  the  labora- 
tories. Board  can  be  obtained  at  rates  according  to  the 
pecuniary  resources  of  the  student  and  her  requirements, 
from  $4.50  a  week  upward. 

Among  students  many  are  found  who  have  earned 
their  way  by  previous  occupations,  teaching,  nursing,  etc. 
Some  begin  their  medical  career  by  taking  a  course  in 
a  training  school  for  nurses,  and  later  utilize  this  profes- 
sion to  earn  money  during  summer  vacations. 

Having  attended  the  required  course  and  passed  all 
"  final "  examinations,  the  student  becomes  a  candidate 
for  graduation  and  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  is 
conferred. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  there  is  no  uniform 
law  regulating  the  practice  of  medicine  in  the  United 
States.  In  order  to  secure  a  license  and  become  regularly 
registered  in  some  States,  an  examination  is  demanded  ; 
in  others  a  diploma  from  a  chartered  medical  school  is 
sufficient. 

During  the  required  four  years  of  college  work  much 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  183 

practical  experience  has  been  gained,  but  it  is  very  desir- 
able to  seek  and  obtain  a  hospital  appointment ;  and  com- 
petitive examinations  are  now  open  to  women  in  many  of 
the  largest  and  best-equipped  hospitals.  There  is  no 
salary  paid  to  a  hospital  interne,  during  a  service  which 
varies  from  six  months  to  two  years.  Board  and  lodging 
are  provided,  but  further  than  this  the  benefit  received 
from  the  hospital  experience  is  deemed  a  full  equivalent 
for  the  time  and  labour. 

In  general  practice  few  physicians  acquire  an  income 
from  their  profession  sufficient  for  support  until  after  at 
least  two  years'  effort.  Much  depends  upon  the  oppor- 
tunities offered,  as  well  as  the  ability  and  personality  of 
the  individual. 

A  number  of  women  physicians  are  reported  as  hav- 
ing attained  a  professional  income  of  $10,000,  $15,000  and 
even  $20,000  a  year.  Even  when  fully  established,  the 
amount  must  necessarily  be  influenced  by  location  and 
climate. 

Success  in  the  medical  profession  cannot  be  based 
upon  financial  results  alone.  We  remember  Dr.  McClure 
and  the  famous  surgeon  from  London,  and  question  the 
success  and  glory  of  either. 

From  these  statements  the  inference  must  not  be  drawn 
that  every  woman  in  the  medical  profession  has  been,  can 
or  will  be  successful.  In  this,  as  in  other  professions, 
there  is  strong  competition,  which  must  result  in  a  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest."  Before  attempting  to  "  pass  the 
Rubicon,"  one  should  consider  earnestly  the  responsi- 
bilities that  lie  beyond,  and  decide  upon  her  personal 
fitness  to  cope  with  the  work.  To  the  hesitating,  let  me 
say,  there  may  be  a  latent  strength  awaiting  development 
and  not  discerned  by  the  nearest  and  dearest. 

No  one  can  read  your  heart  and  interpret  the  motives 


184  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

prompting  you  to  enter  this  particular  profession,  and 
though  kindly  counsel  is  advisable,  the  responsibility  of  a 
decision  must  rest  with  you  alone.  A  physician's  life  is 
one  of  varied  experiences  and  plentifully  interspersed 
with  hours  of  discouragement  and  anxiety.  It  is  one  of 
increasing  responsibility,  and  the  burdens  of  others  will 
add  weight  to  your  personal  griefs,  and  must  be  borne 
with  equal  dignity  and  silence.  It  is,  too,  a  life  of 
endeavour  and  hope,  and  when  the  pain  has  been  eased,  the 
load  lifted  or  the  way  made  brighter  for  a  suffering  one, 
it  becomes  a  life  of  gratification  and  joy. 

SARA  J.  WILLIAMS-VANDERBEEK. 


THE  FIN  DE  SIECLE  PORTIA. 

She  Must  Be  Persevering  and  Really  Learn  Law. —  Then  the 
Aspirant  Has  Plenty  of  Chances  to  Succeed. 

WHILE  the  woman  physician  has  become  a  recognised 
factor  in  the  professional  world,  such  a  position  can 
hardly  be  claimed  for  women  in  the  law  ;  but  if  the 
standard  of  mental  fitness  and  capacity,  instead  of  mere 
money  success,  is  allowed  her,  a  decided  victory  has  been 
signallized  even  in  this  comparatively  short  time.  It  is 
not  a  decade  since  colleges  and  universities  in  New  York 
State  began  graduating  women  from  their  law  schools  ; 
and  scarcely  a  score  of  years  have  passed  since  women 
began  storming  this  last  citadel  of  the  learned  professions. 
Yet  the  number  now  in  the  profession  has  mounted  into 
the  hundreds.  Whether  there  is,  in  a  material  sense,  a 
rich  harvest  awaiting  women  generally  in  this  field  has 
hardly  been  proved,  but,  if  so,  there  is  at  least  no  easy 
reaping,  and  the  number  for  whom  it  has  been  even  a 
"  bread  and  butter  "  success  are  few. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  185 

The  social  complications  of  the  woman  lawyer's  posi- 
tion are  also  unique.  The  woman  physician  or  dentist 
may  have  her  clientele  of  women  whom  she  serves  to  a 
great  extent  in  private  ;  but  even  though  a  woman  be  her 
client,  the  woman  lawyer  must  inevitably  be  associated 
with  men,  for  a  thousand  to  one  the  lawyer  on  the  other 
side  will  be  of  the  opposite  sex  ;  and  in  the  active  practice 
of  her  profession  she  enters,  almost  wholly,  the  ramifica- 
tions of  the  strictly  masculine  world,  in  office,  in  court,  in 
commerce  and  business.  If  she  is  a  sensible  woman,  she 
will  expect  no  favours  on  account  of  her  sex,  and  although 
the  testimony  of  every  woman  would,  I  believe,  be  that  of 
almost  invariable  courtesy  and  generous  welcome  from 
her  brother  attorneys,  yet  the  ramparts  yield  but  slowly, 
and  the  law  has  many  delays.  Even  at  this  day  the 
woman  lawyer  is  a  pioneer,  and  only  the  best  work  and 
keenest  sense  of  duty  will  be  the  warrant  of  her  right  to 
enter  the  profession. 

The  choice  of  the  law  is,  therefore,  a  serious  question, 
not  only  to  the  woman  dependent  upon  her  own  resources 
for  her  living,  but  also  to  the  woman  who  is  ambitious  to 
make  her  life  count  by  diligent  acquirements  in  some  pro- 
fession or  art.  But  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  practice 
of  the  profession,  the  study  of  law  is  one  of  the  greatest 
benefits  a  woman  can  possibly  obtain.  There  is  no  walk 
in  life  which  she  cannot  the  better  fill  for  her  legal  know- 
ledge and  for  the  enlargement  of  mind  which  it  brings. 
If  all  women  do  not  practise  after  studying,  it  is  no  proof 
that  women  are  a  failure  in  the  law,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  world  is  the  richer,  and  her  powers  for  good 
greatly  increased. 

To  the  study  of  the  law  have  come  women  of  all  con- 
ditions and  occupations.  In  the  lecture  halls  of  New 
York  University,  open  to  men  and  women  alike,  sit  side 


186  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

by  side  clerks  from  business  houses,  stenographers  from 
lawyers'  offices  desirous  of  enlarging  their  usefulness  or 
of  taking  up  a  more  active  career  for  themselves  ;  daugh- 
ters, wives  and  mothers  of  professional  men  ;  women  of 
wealth  and  business  women,  studying  for  the  sake  of  more 
carefully  guarding  their  own  affairs  ;  young  college  women, 
philanthropic  women,  and  women  without  purpose,  with- 
out training,  without  business  experience,  who  have  drifted 
into  the  lectures  because  it  is  "  the  thing  "  to  study  some- 
thing. Nine  out  of  ten  of  these  women  will  probably 
never  practise,  and  this  is  the  same  throughout  the  whole 
country  ;  but  all  will  the  better  appreciate  the  work  of 
those  who  go  on  to  the  front  and  really  enter  the  profes- 
sion. It  is  in  the  practice  that  the  romance  ceases  and 
the  hard  struggle  begins. 

In  this,  as  in  every  other  profession,  there  is  no  talent 
of  mind  or  grace  of  person  which  does  not  add  to  the 
chances  of  ultimate  success  ;  but  a  good  stock  of  common- 
sense,  a  retentive  memory,  a  logical  mind  or  the  ability  to 
reason  well,  and  great  powers  of  concentration  are  abso- 
lutely essential,  or  the  study  of  law  will  be  irksome,  and 
both  its  study  and  practice  a  failure. 

There  is  a  great  variety  of  practice  in  the  law,  and  the 
young  attorney  may  choose  that  department  for  which  her 
talents  and  inclination  fit  her.  She  need  not  think  of  law 
only  in  connection  with  court  work,  for  many  of  the  rich- 
est and  most  successful  practitioners  are  never  seen  in 
the  courts,  and  are  not  noted  for  their  forensic  ability. 
There  have  been  women  who  have  pleaded  successfully 
before  juries,  and  others  who  have  confined  themselves 
strictly  to  office  practice,  securing  a  counsel  to  represent 
them  when  a  case  reached  trial. 

For  admission  to  a  regular  university  law  school — and 
such  a  course  is  always  desirable  if  it  can  be  afforded — 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  18; 

the  young  woman  must  be  at  least  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  must  furnish  a  certificate  of  good  moral  character. 
She  will  also  be  required,  if  she  does  not  possess  a  college 
diploma  or  the  necessary  Regents'  certificate,  to  pass  a 
creditable  examination  in  English  literature,  English  com- 
position, geography,  physiology,  hygiene,  plane  geometry 
and  algebra,  and  in  two  of  the  four  following  divisions 
of  history  :  Greek,  Roman,  English  and  American.  In 
advanced  subjects  one  of  the  following  groups  :  (a)  Greek 
and  Latin,  or,  (b)  Latin  and  either  advanced  French  or 
advanced  German  ;  or,  (c)  advanced  French,  advanced 
German  and  solid  geometry,  advanced  algebra  and  plane 
and  spherical  trigonometry.  She  should  also,  if  not  a 
graduate  of  a  college  or  university,  procure  the  Regents' 
"  law-student  certificate,"  in  order  to  comply  with  the 
rules  for  admission  to  the  bar  of  the  State.  She  is  then 
prepared  to  study  for  three  years  in  the  office  under  the 
guidance  of  some  reputable  attorney,  or  to  attend  a  course 
of  regular  law  lectures. 

New  York  University  Law  School  and  Cornell  Univer- 
sity offer  the  two  best  courses  to  women  in  New  York 
State.  The  lecture  work  at  New  York  University  ex- 
tends over  two  years,  and  the  tuition  is  $100  a  year,  with 
an  additional  expense  of  $50  for  books,  board  and  cloth- 
ing being  found  according  to  the  means  of  the  student. 
At  Cornell  Univerity  a  three  years'  course  is  now  required, 
with  tuition  and  books  at  about  the  same  rate  a  year  as 
that  already  given.  At  the  end  of  this  course,  after 
thorough  examinations  in  all  subjects  studied,  the  law  stu- 
dent obtains  her  diploma  and  the  degree  of  LL.  B. 

But  the  young  woman  is  by  no  means  a  full-fledged  law- 
yer. She  must  yet  appear  before  the  Law  Commissioners 
or  Committee  on  Examinations,  appointed  by  law,  to  pass 
the  regular  bar  examination.  This  is  extremely  rigourous 


1 88  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

and  it  will  usually  be  tried,  in  company  with  from  sixty  to 
one  hundred  young  men,  with  perhaps  no  other  woman 
present.  This  test  over,  she  has  yet  to  appear  before  a 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  take  her  oath  of  office, 
and  of  allegiance  to  her  State  and  country,  and  to  file  her 
admission  under  oath  with  the  Clerk  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  is  she  a  regular  at- 
torney, with  the  right  to  practise  in  the  courts  of  this 
State. 

In  other  States  there  are  other  but  similar  requirements, 
requiring  more  or  less  time  of  clerkship  and  study.  In 
Illinois  the  graduate  of  a  regular  law  school  is  admitted 
to  the  bar  without  further  examination.  This,  again,  is 
as  far  as  numbers  of  women  lawyers  ever  go,  and  it  is  at 
this  point  that  the  real  struggle  and  test  begin. 

If  the  lawyer  has  means  she  may  now  rent  a  comforta- 
ble office  in  a  central  location,  and  have  her  name  care- 
fully lettered  upon  the  door,  with  "  Attorney  and  Coun- 
sellor at  Law  "  subjoined  to  interest  the  passer-by.  Such 
an  office  in  New  York  City  would  probably  cost  at  least 
$200  or  $300  a  year.  It  must  be  furnished,  and  this  will 
cost  an  additional  $100  or  $200  if  she  begins  modestly. 

It  is  now  time  for  clients  to  appear,  but  if  they  are  slow 
in  coming  she  must  not  be  surprised,  because  young  men 
starting  an  office  in  the  same  way  meet  with  the  same 
fate — the  trying  ordeal  of  waiting — how  long,  no  one  can 
predict.  It  is  this  waiting,  do  what  she  may,  that  is 
bound  to  try  her  patience  .almost  beyond  endurance,  and 
she  will  question,  and  question  strongly,  whether  women 
have  any  real  place  in  the  law. 

It  would  have  been  better,  perhaps,  and  much  less  a  trial 
of  patience,  had  she  endeavoured  to  induce  some  estab- 
lished firm  of  lawyers  to  accept  her  services  either  on  a 
salary  or  on  a  percentage  of  the  cases  which  she  is  able 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  189 

to  bring  into  the  office,  but  this  has  the  disadvantage  in 
most  instances  of  burying  the  personality  of  the  aspirant. 
She  has,  however,  the  inspiration  of  practical  work  from 
the  beginning,  and  the  counsel  of  experienced  men  in  the 
profession.  This  is  the  course  generally  followed  by 
young  men. 

Here  comes  in  the  trial  of  her  pluck  and  her  tenacity, 
and  it  is  to  meet  the  emergency  of  such  a  moment  that  I 
would  advise  every  young  woman  contemplating  the  prac- 
tice of  law  to  make  herself  master  of  some  line  of  work 
useful  to  a  lawyer,  and  not  to  shun  the  most  humble  duty 
of  her  clerkship  before  admission,  if  it  but  gives  her  a 
claim  to  usefulness  afterward,  A  simple  skill  may 
open  the  door  to  possibilities  which  otherwise  would  be 
closed. 

All  of  her  future  success  depends  now  upon  her  own 
talent,  perseverance,  endurance  and  ability  to  win  the  con- 
fidence of  those  with  whom  she  comes  in  contact.  Many 
things  may  aid,  but  the  secret  of  how  to  win  she  must  be 
able  to  find  for  herself.  She  should,  however,  interest 
herself  sincerely  in  all  that  pertains  to  women,  their  social 
and  economic  condition,  their  clubs,  their  wrongs,  their 
weaknesses.  She  should  study,  not  some  particular  class, 
but  womankind  in  all  her  phases  and  needs,  for  it  is  from 
women  that  her  clientele  will  largely  be  drawn,  though  it 
is  a  fact  that  many  men  have  no  objection  to  employing 
women  attorneys,  considering  them  more  reliable,  tactful 
and  honest  than  their  brothers.  She  should  set  for  her- 
self the  highest  standard  of  work  and  charge  according 
to  the  value  of  the  work  done,  and  not  less  than  men  do, 
simply  because  she  is  a  woman.  She  should  believe  that 
practice  comes  to  her  because  she  has  proved  her  ability 
to  do  work  equal  to  the  best  in  her  profession.  She  may 
become  a  competitor  with  men  in  the  profession,  but  should 


190  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

not  be  a  menace  by  doing  regular  law  work  for  little  or 
nothing.     And  last,  but  not  least,  she  must  be  womanly. 

The  most  embarrassing  problem  the  lawyer  will  have 
to  master,  in  common  with  all  other  professional  women, 
will  be  in  framing  the  etiquette  of  her  position,  for  there 
is  as  yet  no  social  code  but  a  woman's  own  good  judgment 
to  determine  the  precise  social  duties  and  relations  of 
those  who  follow  a  vocation  which  places  them  side  by 
side  with  men.  It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  any  law  of 
behaviour  in  this  difficult  position,  but  it  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  no  woman  has  ever  made  a  genuine  success 
in  any  profession  which  brought  her  into  daily  association 
with  men  who  was  not  thoroughly  womanly.  The  mascu- 
line woman  who  enters  into  rough  comradeship  with  men, 
or  is  ever  on  the  aggressive  or  defensive,  may  achieve 
notoriety,  but  never  true  success.  She  who  goes  quietly 
and  bravely  about  her  work,  who  meets  distrust  with 
faithful  and  diligent  service,  who  is  dignified,  self-respect- 
ing and  wise  without  pretension,  tactful  without  familiar- 
ity, feminine  without  being  frivolous,  and  who,  above  all, 
manifests  a  kindliness  toward  those  of  her  own  sex,  will 
rise  on  solid  foundations  and  do  much  to  level  prejudice 
against  those  who  will  come  after  her. 

The  woman  lawyer  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  if  a  new  idea  be  true  it  is  destined  to  develop  and 
ultimately  to  be  received  of  all.  If  it  is  money  that  alone 
is  sought,  the  legal  profession  offers  many  delays  and 
uncertainties,  much  hardship  and  labour,  but  if  honest 
work  and  honour  are  sought,  the  law  offers  its  full  share. 
FLORENCE  DANGERFIELD-POTTER. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  191 

PATENT  SOLICITING. 

A  Living  in  Any  Library. — An  Excellent  Chance  of  Which 

Many  Ingenious  and  Persistent  Women  Are  Already 

Taking  Advantage. 

A  LONG  period  of  training  is  necessary  to  become  a 
competent  patent  solicitor,  but,  unlike  most  professions 
which  require  years  of  preliminary  study,  this  one  offers  a 
living  salary  almost  from  the  start,  in  the  very  act  of 
studying.  The  profession  is  interesting  in  its  variety, 
pays  well,  as  it  is  not  overcrowded  with  proficient  mem- 
bers, and  is  eminently  suitable  for  women  who  desire  a 
quiet,  studious  occupation.  There  is  no  limitation  in  the 
way  of  study  or  profit.  The  profession  is  a  "  grown-up  " 
school,  in  which  the  best  scholar  stands  at  the  head,  and 
may  demand  her  own  price  for  her  services. 

A  good  preliminary  education  is  necessary.  Every  sub- 
ject ever  studied  will  help  in  this  profession,  as  patents  are 
granted  for  inventions  in  every  art  or  science.  If  the 
first  rudiments  of  chemistry  and  electricity  have  not  been 
included  in  the  preliminary  education,  they  should  be 
learned  at  the  earliest  opportunity. 

Ability  to  understand  machinery  is  necessary,  but  it  is 
not  essential  to  be  a  born  mechanic.  The  operation  of 
machinery,  from  a  watch  to  a  marine  engine,  will  soon 
lose  its  apparent  intricacy  when  a  sufficient  knowledge  of 
mechanics  has  been  acquired  by  persevering  study. 

Among  the  many  personal  characteristics  helping  to 
success,  accuracy  leads  in  this  business. 

One  of  the  best  ways  of  entering  this  field  is  to  learn 
mechanical  drawing,  because  not  only  is  this  the  surest 
way  of  learning  to  "  read  "  mechanical  drawings  (a  neces- 
sary part  of  a  patent  solicitor's  education),  and  to  become 


192  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

acquainted  with  various  mechanisms,  but  a  living  can  be 
obtained  by  this  work.  Draughtsmen  receive  all  the  way 
from  $5  to  $30  a  week  in  salaries.  One  of  the  best 
mechanical  draughtsmen,  if  not  the  very  best,  in  New 
York  City  is  a  woman,  who  carries  on  her  own  business 
and  always  has  more  work  than  she  can  do. 

To  be  a  mechanical  draughtsman  requires  more  com- 
mon-sense than  talent— in  fact,  talent  for  free-hand  draw- 
ing is  not  essential.  The  drawings  are  made  with  ruling 
and  circle  pens.  There  are  few,  if  any,  places  where 
women  are  taught  mechanical  drawing,  and  if  you  cannot 
find  any,  content  yourself  with  the  knowledge  that  it  is 
far  better  to  learn  in  an  office  where  the  practical  side  is 
seen. 

If  you  have  friends  to  aid  you,  you  may  fare  better  at 
the  start,  but  if  you  have  not,  do  not  be  in  the  least 
daunted,  for  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  is  to  learn  to 
depend  upon  your  own  efforts.  Get  a  list  of  the  names  of 
the  patent  solicitors  and  draughtsmen  from  the  business 
directory  of  your  city.  Call  on  the  solicitors  first.  If 
you  are  a  "  lady "  you  will  be  treated  as  such.  If  the 
solicitor  has  a  draughtsman  in  his  office,  ask  if  you  may 
b.e  permitted  to  learn  drawing  under  him  in  return  for  ser- 
vices in  the  office.  The  writer  took  this  course  many 
years  ago,  none  other  being  open  to  her. 

If  you  do  not  succeed  in  placing  yourself  with  a  patent 
solicitor,  next  try  the  draughtsmen  ;  but  here  it  would  be 
well  to  offer  to  pay  for  instruction  for  a  short  time,  as 
there  is  generally  very  little  to  be  done  in  a  draughts- 
man's office  in  the  way  of  services  except  drawing. 

In  from  one  to  six  months  you  should  be  able  to  trace 
and  copy  drawings  sufficiently  well  to  be  paid  for  your 
work,  and  if  you  are  in  earnest,  within  a  year's  time  you 
may  expect  to  receive  a  salary  of  from  $8  a  week  up. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  193 

While  it  is  not  necessary  to  become  an  expert  draughts- 
man to  "  read  "  drawings,  if  you  are  capable  of  doing 
good  work  you  stand  a  better  chance  of  obtaining  a 
place  with  a  high-grade  patent  solicitor,  where  you  can 
learn  the  best  practice. 

Never  draw  or  copy  anything  without  finding  out  all 
you  can  about  the  object  drawn.  Make  this  a  hard  and 
fast  rule. 

Find  out  where  you  can  have  access  to  mechanical  dic- 
tionaries and  handbooks  on  all  subjects,  and  make  good 
use  of  these  books.  Learn  all  you  can  from  others,  but 
do  not  rely  upon  any  one  to  put  logic  and  learning 
into  your  head.  Cultivate  self-confidence,  for  if  you  lack 
this  quality  no  one  will  employ  you  in  this  line.  Never 
leave  anything  not  understood  until  every  available 
source  of  information  has  been  exhausted.  Frequent  the 
libraries  where  you  can  see  mechanical,  engineering  and 
electrical  papers,  and  persist  in  reading  them  until  it  has 
ceased  to  be  a  bore,  and  then  continue  to  read  them  to 
keep  up  with  your  profession. 

If  you  start  in  a  draughtsman's  office,  be  constantly  on 
the  lookout  for  a  place  in  a  good  patent  solicitor's  office, 
and  when  once  in  seize  every  opportunity  to  learn  all  you 
can  about  the  business.  If  you  are  enthusiastically  earn- 
est in  your  work  you  will  always  find  some  one  happy  to 
teach  you. 

As  the  work  of  a  patent  solicitor  in  obtaining  patents 
is  not  generally  known  to  women,  it  may  be  well  to  state 
it  briefly. 

When  an  invention  is  brought  to  the  solicitor,  as  a  rule, 
a  search  is  made  among  existing  patents,  books  and  cata- 
logues, to  bring  to  light  what  is  known  in  the  art  to 
which  the  invention  relates.  The  solicitor  then  carefully 
studies  the  patents  or  other  references  found,  and  advises 


i94  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

the  inventor  how  comprehensive  a  claim  or  claims  can 
probably  be  obtained  in  a  patent,  in  view  of  these  refer- 
ences, and  gives  an  off-hand  opinion  as  to  how  firmly 
such  claims  would  stand  in  a  court  of  law. 

If  the  inventor  decides  upon  applying  for  a  patent,  the 
solicitor  writes  a  description  of  the  invention,  which  is 
illustrated  by  drawings  wherever  possible,  and  drafts 
claims  embodying  what  the  inventor  believes  to  be  his 
invention.  The  entire  worth  of  the  patent  resides  here, 
for,  no  matter  how  much  is  described  in  the  body  of  the 
patent,  the  monoply  is  granted  only  for  what  is  distinctly 
set  forth  in  the  claims  at  the  end  of  the  description. 
The  real  ability  of  the  solicitor  comes  in  here,  to  draw  the 
claims  broad  enough  thoroughly  to  protect  the  invention. 

This  description,  the  claims  and  the  drawing,  with  the 
necessary  forms,  are  filed  in  the  Patent  Office  at  Wash- 
ington, where  they  are  examined.  If  the  papers  are  all  in 
correct  form,  and  the  examiner  finds  nothing  to  conflict 
with  the  claims,  the  case  is  allowed,  and  the  solicitor's 
work  is  virtually  ended.  Very  few  cases  are  allowed, 
however,  without  one  or  more  "  rejections  "  of  some  or 
all  of  the  claims,  on  patents  or  publications  which  the 
examiner  thinks  anticipate  the  invention  as  claimed. 

Then  comes  the  hardest  work  of  the  patent  solicitor. 
As  the  number  of  patents  increases  (in  the  United  States 
alone  they  now  number  over  six  hundred  thousand),  the 
more  difficult  it  is  to  draw  a  claim  so  as  to  distinguish  it 
from  existing  patents.  Moreover,  the  staff  of  examiners 
at  the  Patent  Office  has  for  many  years  been  inadequate 
to  the  amount  of  work,  and  it  seems  as  if  the  examiners 
were  obliged  to  cite  any  reference  with  the  slightest  sem- 
blance of  similarity,  and  make  the  solicitor  do  the  study- 
ing and  prove  by  argument  that  the  reference  should  not 
interfere  with  the  allowance  of  the  case. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  195 

The  solicitor  must  study  all  the  references  cited  by  the 
examiner,  judge  whether  or  not  the  examiner  is  right,  and 
redraw  the  claims  to  distinguish  between  the  invention  in 
hand  and  the  references  (and  here  it  is  necessary  to  be 
able  to  perceive  the  finest  distinctions  between  expres- 
sions of  language)  or  write  convincing  arguments  in  sup- 
port of  the  claims  first  filed.  Sometimes  alternative 
rejections  and  amendments  continue  for  years  in  one  case. 

Then  there  are  appeals  from  the  examiner's  decision, 
interferences,  where  two  or  more  are  before  the  office  at 
the  same  time  with  the  same  invention,  etc.,  the  details  of 
which  cannot  be  given  here. 

EDITH  J.  GRISWOLD. 


MISS ,  SEARCHER  OF  PATENTS. 

The  Public  Libraries  of  Large  Cities  Are  Veritable  Klon- 
dikes  for  Women  of  Resources. 

ONE  woman  is  known  who  has  made  $50  a  week  during 
odd  minutes  searching  patents,  translating  abstracts, 
copying  and  enlarging  designs,  tracing  drawings  and 
copying  patents  for  patrons.  It  is  not  difficult  to  obtain 
the  name  of  "  Miss ,  searcher  of  patents." 

To  go  about  it,  one  needs  to  familiarize  herself  with 
the  various  records  and  indices.  A  few  visits  to  the 
library  would  make  a  beginning  in  this,  and  the  rest 
could  be  done  in  connection  with  the  work.  A  know- 
ledge of  French  and  German  would  be  of  great  value,  as 
translations  of  copies  of  patents  are  often  asked  for.  A 
translation  is  worth  from  $i  to  $10,  according  to  the 
amount  of  copy,  and  occasionally  the  price  reaches  the 
$20  mark.  Copies  of  American  patents  are  never  asked 


196  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

for,  as  they  can  be  obtained  from  Washington  for  five 
cents.  The  price  for  an  English  copy  is  10  cents  a  hun- 
dred words. 

Copying  requires  much  less  carefulness  and  attention 
to  detail  than  searching,  but  the  principal  qualifications 
for  the  searcher  are  faithful  attention  and  patient  grub- 
bing through  many  volumes  of  technicalities.  Another 
important  division  of  this  work  is  the  tracing  and  enlarg- 
ing of  drawings,  and  one  is  sometimes  asked  to  make 
drawings  from  a  sample  of  the  article  patented.  The 
tracing  is,  of  course,  simple,  but  the  enlarging  of  draw- 
ings would  require  a  knowledge  of  mechanical  drawing. 


DENTISTRY  AS  A  PROFESSION. 

Dr.  Margarita  A.  Stewart  Gives  Valuable  Advice. — Much 

to  Be  Done  by  the  Woman  Who  Proposes  to  Follow 

This  Line  of  Work  as  a  Means  of  Making  a  Living. 

ALTHOUGH  the  general  public  has  become  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  woman  physician,  it  still  lifts  its  eye- 
brows in  surprise  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  her 
younger  sister,  the  woman  dentist.  Nevertheless,  the 
latter  has  arrived,  and  bids  fair  to  rival  her  elder  sister 
in  the  success  of  her  career. 

Upward  of  twenty-five  years  ago  Professor  C.  N. 
Peirce,  dean  of  the  Pennsylvania  College  of  Dental  Sur- 
gery, after  a  well-fought  battle  with  his  colleagues,  suc- 
ceeded in  throwing  open  the  doors  of  his  college  to  wom- 
en. Since  that  time  other  dental  colleges  have  opened 
their  doors,  and  women  are  received  into  their  classes. 

In  1892  the  New  York  Dental  School  was  chartered  by 
the  Regents,  and  organized  on  the  co-educational  basis. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  197 

In  the  latest  catalogue  of  that  school  I  find  this  announce- 
ment: 

Our  experience  in  the  training  of  women  for  the  pro- 
fession of  dentistry  has  been  such  as  to  recommend  them 
to  enter  it.  Classes  are  increasing  and  applications  are 
abundant.  We  are  not  only  willing,  but  glad,  to  have 
them. 

This  institution  bids  fair  to  become  the  popular  dental 
college  with  women  students,  not  only  because  of  the 
facilities  which  New  York  City  offers  for  practical  expe- 
rience to  students  in  the  profession,  but  because  of  the 
perfect  freedom  from  any  sense  of  intrusion  with  which 
women  may  avail  themselves  of  the  privilege  of  the  insti- 
tution. Without  a  doubt  this  profession  is  one  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  "  woman's  sphere." 

It  is  work  that  can  be  done  in  her  own  home,  may  be 
confined  within  regular  hours,  and  its  field  of  operation  is 
largely  devoted  to  women.  Surely  the  peculiar  graces  of 
womanhood  must  come  to  be  appreciated  here,  if  any- 
where; the  sympathetic  nature,  the  gentle  touch,  and, 
withal,  the  kindly  word  of  encouragement. 

The  dental  chair,  as  we  all  know,  is  in  the  majority  of 
minds  the  synonym  for  torture,  because  to  do  good  work 
and  render  efficient  service  it  has  been  necessary  to  inflict 
pain.  But  the  days  of  painful  surgical  operations  are 
past,  and  perhaps  it  would  be  interesting  to  my  lay 
sisters  to  know  that  the  greatest  boon  which  has  come  to 
suffering  humanity  within  this  century,  and  which  has 
made  the  triumphs  of  modern  surgery  possible — anaes- 
thetic— was  brought  to  it  through  the  dental  profession 
by  the  efforts  of  a  dentist  to  overcome  the  pain  incident 
to  the  extracting  of  teeth. 

But  this  was   in  the  davs  when  dentistrv  had   iust 


198  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

emerged  from  swaddling  clothes  in  the  barber's  chair,  and 
the  only  thing  to  be  done  with  a  troublesome  tooth  was 
to  extract  it  and  replace  it  with  an  artificial  one.  To-day 
the  dentist  is  able  to  save  teeth  from  the  forceps,  and  the 
painless  way  to  do  this  will  be  sure  to  follow. 

Dentistry,  as  the  profession  is  now  known  to  be,  is 
distinctly  of  American  birth,  and  is  yet  in  its  infancy.  It 
is  only  a  little  more  than  fifty  years  since  the  first  dental 
college  in  the  world  was  founded  at  Baltimore.  Since 
that  time  there  has  grown  a  great  system  of  colleges, 
embracing  the  civilised  world,  and  there  has  developed  a 
literature  of  no  mean  proportions  in  the  way  of  textbooks 
and  scientific  treatises  on  dental  subjects,  together  with  a 
current  literature  of  upward  of  thirty  periodicals  devoid 
exclusively  to  the  interests  of  the  profession. 

Nor  has  the  birth  of  modern  dentistry  been  premature, 
for  with  the  march  of  civilisation  the  teeth  of  the  huir?n 
race  are  yielding  to  the  general  neurotic  tendency  so 
manifest  on  every  side.  Already  the  question  is  being 
asked  by  thoughtful  observers,  "  Are  we  to  become  a 
toothless  race  ?  "  Here  in  our  beloved  America,  which 
has  developed  the  highest  type  of  civilisation  in  the  world, 
we  see  the  most  rapid  degeneration  of  our  beautiful  teeth, 
which  contribute  more  than  any  other  feature  to  the 
health  of  the  human  organism. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  medical  profession  would 
not  and  does  not  to-day  recognise  the  importance  of  this 
special  feature  of  medical  science.  Consequently,  den- 
tistry as  a  separate  profession  became  a  necessity. 
Nevertheless,  without  a  broad,  general  education  in  the 
science  of  medicine,  it  will  be  unable  to  meet  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  case  or  successfully  cope  with  the  situation. 
Even  then  the  remedy  must  be  largely  educational. 
Millions  of  teeth  are  sacrificed  because  of  ignorance. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  199 

The  masses  do  not  appreciate  their  importance  and  value, 
and  know  nothing  of  the  possibilities  of  dental  science. 
As  the  generations  pass,  the  bad  heredity  contingent  upon 
this  ignorance  is  augmenting  the  deadly  work  of  tooth- 
destruction.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  if  we  would  do  effective 
work  in  reform,  we  must  begin,  as  the  late  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  so  wisely  said,  with  the  grandparents. 
The  children  of  to-day  are  the  grandparents  of  the  future. 
An  enlightened  public  spirit  has  introduced  hygiene  and 
physiology  into  the  curriculum  of  the  public  schools. 

Why  not  extend  this  department  of  public  instruction 
sufficiently  to  teach  these  subjects  in  their  practical 
application  to  the  care  of  the  teeth  ?  Such  a  course  would 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  wards  of  the  Nation,  and 
its  effect  would  be  seen  in  the  marked  improvement  of  a 
condition  which  is  to-day  our  characteristic  National 
physical  defect — bad  teeth. 

Woman  is  the  natural  educator  of  the  race,  and  surely 
this  field  is  one  that  may  well  engage  the  attention  of  a 
woman  ambitious  for  a  distinguished  professional  career. 
If  she  possesses  the  necessary  qualifications  for  success  in 
any  calling — the  capacity  for  conscientious,  painstaking 
work  and  a  steady  purpose — there  is  no  profession  that 
offers  more  promising  prospects  for  a  woman  than  den- 
tistry— not  even  the  more  popular  one  of  medicine.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  said  that  of  the  seventeen  thousand 
dentists  in  the  United  States  many  cannot  make  their 
profession  profitable,  while  the  dental  work  that  needs  to 
be  done  would  keep  fifty  thousand  dentists  comfortably 
employed.  This  means  that  the  activity  of  dental  colleges 
in  educating  dentists  has  run  far  ahead  of  the  education 
of  the  people  in  the  importance  of  caring  for  their  teeth. 

Although  it  is  the  infant  among  the  professions,  den- 
tistry is  keeping  pace  with  the  more  ancient  callings,  and 


200  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

is  steadily  demanding  higher  standards  in  preliminary 
education,  as  well  as  more  time  for  the  thorough  training 
and  education  of  its  students  in  the  special  requirements 
of  the  profession. 

In  the  State  of  New  York  these  requirements  are  now 
fixed  by  law,  and  the  students  of  the  professions  are  on  an 
equal  footing. 

The  preliminary  requirements  for  entering  either  law, 
medicine  or  dentistry  are  equivalent  to  a  New  York  high- 
school  education.  These  preliminary  requirements  vary 
somewhat  in  the  different  States.  The  Regents  control 
the  issuing  of  certificates  for  matriculation  in  this  State ; 
students  who  matriculate  prior  to  January  i,  1900 — the 
date  for  the  law  to  take  full  effect — may  obtain  certificates 
on  a  modified  scale  of  the  required  number  of  counts. 
Candidates  should  apply  to  the  Examination  Department, 
University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  for 
full  particulars  as  to  these  modifications. 

For  the  woman  who  proposes  to  take  up  the  study  and 
practice  of  dentistry  in  New  York,  the  first  step  should  be 
to  secure  this  certificate,  then  to  consult  her  bank  account. 
If  she  is  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  hitherto  useless  diploma 
tucked  away  among  her  belongings,  it  is  a  treasure  the 
value  of  which  she  will  never  appreciate.  If  she  has  not, 
and  must  secure  her  certificate,  either  by  examinations  or 
evidence  of  equivalent  work,  the  test  of  her  ability  to 
succeed  in  her  chosen  profession  is  upon  her  at  the  very 
outset.  If  she  succeeds  in  crossing  this  Rubicon  without 
a  satisfactory  diploma  to  bridge  it,  though  her  bank  ac- 
count be  at  zero,  she  will  manage  that  also. 

The  time  required  to  complete  the  course  of  study  is 
three  years,  and  the  fee  for  the  entire  course  amounts  to 
about  $500.  This  does  not  include  the  text-books,  which 
would  cost  about  from  $15  to  $25.  The  instruments 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  201 

absolutely  essential  for  school  work  can  be  obtained  for 
about  $50.  However,  if  the  bank  account  will  bear  the 
strain  of  an  additional  $50,  the  increased  facility  for  satis- 
factory infirmary  and  laboratory  work  would  be  well 
worth  the  outlay,  and  in  the  end  the  student  would  be  in 
possession  of  a  partial  outfit  for  office  work.  An  addi- 
tional outlay  of,  say,  $300  will  fully  ecfuip  an  office  and 
laboratory  for  the  practice  of  dentistry. 

It  might  be  done  for  something  less,  the  difference 
depending  upon  the  amount  of  money  invested  in  a  chair, 
which  costs  from  $75  to  $175. 

When  the  persistent  student  has  put  in  three  years  of 
good  work,  passed  numerous  examinations,  and  is  finally 
approved  by  the  faculty  of  the  school,  she  is  recommended 
to  the  Board  of  Regents  for  the  degree  of  D.D.S.  For 
this  examination  she  pays  $25,  and,  if  successful,  receives 
the  degree,  and  is  licensed  to  practise  dentistry.  How- 
ever, she  has  not  yet  fully  complied  with  the  law,  but  must 
betake  herself  to  the  Recorder's  office  with  these  well- 
earned  parchments,  and  have  them  registered,  for  which 
she  pays  $i.  Now  she  may  hang  out  her  sign,  with  the 
consciousness  of  having  fully  secured  the  lawful  right  to 
earn  her  bread  through  the  frailty  of  the  teeth,  upon 
which  the  body  healthfulness  to  a  great  extent  depends. 

The  investment  of  something  less  than  $1,000  in  money 
and  three  years  of  time  puts  into  her  power  the  skill  for 
handling  a  specialty  in  which  there  will  be  a  continual 
growing  demand  for  service.  How  fast  it  will  turn  her 
way  will  depend  upon  her  ability  to  attract  and  hold  a 
clientele.  Nevertheless,  in  the  end  she  will  be  sure  to 
have  a  competency  if  she  continues  faithful  in  well-doing. 

MARGARITA  A.  STEWART,  M.  D.,  D.  D.  S. 


202  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

AVERAGE  EARNINGS  IN  DENTISTRY. 

IN  case  her  circumstances  are  such  that  the  newly- 
fledged  dentist  hesitates  to  open  an  office  of  her  own,  she 
may  take  a  position  as  assistant  to  some  established  den- 
tist. She  can  easily  command  a  salary  of  $25  to  $50  a 
week,  working  from  8  o'clock  to  5,  or  later  if  the  daylight 
lasts  after  that  hour. 

Two  or  three  years  of  this  work  gives  needed  experi- 
ence, besides  which  money  can  be  saved  to  tide  over  the 
inevitable  waiting  period. 

As  for  the  average  earnings  of  a  successful  dentist,  Dr. 
Teichman,  who  has  been  thirty  years  in  the  profession, 
considers  $5,000  a  moderate  annual  income  for  a  man. 

There  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  a  woman  can 
count  on  a  corresponding  reward  for  her  labour. 


WOMEN  AS  MISSIONARIES. 

IN  the  missionary  field,  at  home  and  abroad,  many  wo- 
men are  earning  the  gratitude  of  the  Christian  world  by 
their  valuable  services.  These  women  may  perhaps  not  be 
classed  as  members  of  a  learned  profession  at  the  start  of 
their  careers,  and  yet  they  become  most  learned  in  more 
than  one  before  their  long  service  is  closed.  In  India, 
China,  Japan  and  other  semi-civilised  countries  it  becomes 
needful  for  the  successful  female  missionary,  whether  a 
wife  or  single,  to  know  much  about  medicine  and  the 
Gospel,  and  to  master  the  language  of  the  natives,  and 
with  these  aids,  she  enters  where  a  man  cannot.  Before 
her  labours  are  ended  she  deserves,  if  she  does  not  actually 
enjoy,  the  title  of  a  learned  woman.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  many  missionaries  owe  to  their  wives  all  the 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  203 

success  which  they  are  able  from  time  to  time  to  report 
to  the  Board  which  has  sent  both  of  them  forth.  Among 
the  Indians  of  our  own  country  and  the  coloured  popula- 
tion of  the  South,  women  fare  the  best  in  winning  families 
to  better  ways  of  living.  If  the  "  one-room  log  cabin  " 
for  these  races  is  ever  abandoned  for  dwellings  in  which 
comfort  and  morality  shall  gain  a  strong  foothold,  the 
result  will  be  due  mainly  to  the  labours  of  women  who, 
not  being  members  of  a  learned  profession,  should,  never- 
theless, have  appended  to  their  names  some  one  of  the 
titles  borne  by  most  of  their  masculine  colabourers.  - 


HOW  NURSES  ARE  TRAINED. 

Miss  Sutliffe,  Director  at  the  New-  York,  Explains  It.—* 

Two  Months'  Probation,  Then  a  Course  of  Three 

Years.— Pay  Is  $25  a  Week  After  That, 

When  Employed. 

THE  profession  of  a  trained  nurse  is  one  of  recent 
development,  and  one  that  is  especially  attracting  refined 
and  earnest  women  at  the  present  time.  To  the  sympa- 
thetic woman,  though  one  of  the  most  trying  of  occupa- 
tions, the  work  of  a  nurse  is  bound  to  become  fascinating 
because  of  the  good  it  does  and  the  personal  confidence 
that  employment  implies.  Wages  are  far  better  than  in 
most  fields  in  which  women  are  employed,  and  the  capable 
nurse  who  has  gentle  and  refined  manners  is  pretty  sure 
to  have  employment  most  of  the  year.  Physicians  do 
most  to  secure  such  employment  for  women  whom  they 
can  trust.  There  are  hundreds  of  young  women  now  fit- 
ting themselves  for  the  work. 

The  New  York,  the  oldest  hospital  in  this  city,  organ- 
ized its  training  school  in  1876.  Miss  I.  H.  Sutliffe,  direc- 


204  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

tor  of  the  Training  School,  succeeded  Zilpha  E.  Whittaker 
in  that  office  in  1885. 

The  other  training  schools  connected  with  hospitals  in 
New  York  are:  Bellevue,  established  in  1873;  Blackwell's 
Island,  in  1875;  Mount  Sinai,  in  1881 ;  the  school  of  the 
German  Hospital,  in  1885 ;  the  Post  Graduate  School,  in 
1888;  St.  Luke's,  established  in  1888;  the  Presbyterian, 
in  1892;  St.  Vincent's,  in  1892;  the  Red  Cross,  in  1894; 
and  the  Roosevelt,  in  November,  1896. 

In  addition  to  these  schools  the  Cancer  Hospital  and 
the  Woman's  Hospital  have  post-graduate  courses  of  six 
months  for  trained  nurses.  Mrs.  Anna  M.  Lawson,  a 
graduate  of  the  New  York  Hospital  Training  School,  is 
superintendent  of  the  Cancer  Hospital,  and  was  the  first 
woman  ever  appointed  in  this  city  as  superintendent  of  a 
hospital.  Miss  Frances  E.  Fowler,  of  the  Woman's  Hos- 
pital, was  the  second.  The  superintendents  of  the  train- 
ing schools  exercise  a  supervision  of  the  hospitals,  but  are 
not  designated  superintendents  of  those  institutions. 

In  order  to  obtain  admission  to  the  training  school  of 
any  good  hospital  the  applicant  must  be  of  good  character, 
in  sound  health,  and  have  a  good  common-school  educa- 
tion. A  candidate  whose  references  show  that  she  has 
these  qualifications  may  be  accepted  on  probation  for  a 
term  generally  not  exceeding  two  months.  During  the 
probationary  term  she  is  carefully  observed,  and  if  she 
gives  evidence  that  she  possesses  the  qualities  that  are 
essential  for  a  nurse  she  is  accepted  as  a  pupil. 

Among  these  qualities  I  regard  earnestness  as  perhaps 
the  most  essential.  A  woman  may  be  strong,  intelligent 
and  well  educated,  but  if  she  evinces  no  realisation  of  the 
nobility  of  her  calling,  no  desire  to  maintain  a  high  stand- 
ard in  it,  she  would  not  be  accounted  worthy  of  accept- 
ance. The  nurse  must  have  a  fine  sense  of  honour.  Both 


LEARNED 

in  the  hospital  and  private  practice  she  wiH  necessarily  be 
the  recipient  of  many  confidences,  of  family  secrets,  which 
she  must  regard  as  sacred.  She  must  be  sympathetic,  gen- 
tle, patient. 

The  invalid  may  be  irritating  and  unreasonable,  and 
the  nurse  may  be  very  weary,  but  she  must  not  give  way 
to  irritability.  She  must  be  tactful,  self-forgetful,  consid- 
erate. Candidates  otherwise  satisfactory  have  been  re- 
jected because  of  lack  of  consideration  for  others.  She 
must  not  be  absent-minded.  No  dreamer  can  succeed. 
She  must  think  quickly,  clearly,  put  her  thoughts  promptly 
into  action,  and  control  her  nerves,  or  she  will  fail  in  an 
emergency.  She  must  know  how  to  make  her  head  save 
her  hands.  Of  course,  the  training  develops  these  quali- 
ties. 

Accepted  probationers  must  be  between  twenty-three 
and  thirty-three  years  old.  When  accepted  as  nurses  in 
training,  members  of  the  junior  class  in  the  New  York 
Hospital,  for  example,  receive  a  monthly  allowance  of 
$10;  those  of  the  senior  class,  $13,  and  those  of  the  head- 
nurse  class,  $16.  Board,  lodging  and  washing  are  fur- 
nished without  charge,  and  in  sickness  all  pupils  have 
gratuitous  care.  The  nurse,  therefore,  has  the  benefit  of 
a  training  free  of  expense,  and  she  is  self-supporting  from 
the  beginning. 

Classes  graduate  in  March  of  every  year.  The  course 
of  instruction  extends  over  three  years.  It  consists  in 
part  of  lectures  on  the  general  principles  of  nursing ;  the 
observation  and  recording  of  symptoms;  elementary 
physiology,  anatomy  and  hygiene;  materia  medica,  mas- 
sage, and  a  course  of  gynecological  nursing.  Practical 
instruction  is  given  at  the  bedside  on  the  dressing  of 
wounds,  application  of  blisters,  fomentations,  poultices, 
cups  and  leeches ;  bandaging  and  making  of  rollers ;  mak- 


206  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ing  beds,  changing  drawsheets  and  sheets;  moving 
patient,  preventing  bed  sores,  etc.  Nurses  are  held 
responsible  for  the  orderly  condition  of  their  wards,  which 
includes  the  care  of  linen  closets,  etc.,  and  in  addition  to 
actual  nursing  must  attend  to  many  details  connected 
with  the  charge  of  patients. 

Our  nurses  serve  a  term  in  the  diet  kitchen,  and  learn 
to  prepare  broths,  jellies,  light  puddings  and  other  dishes 
suitable  for  invalids.  They  have  a  term  of  emergency 
service  in  the  House  of  Relief,  at  Nos.  67  and  69  Hudson 
Street,  which  is  connected  with  the  New  York  Hospital. 

The  hours  in  the  wards  for  pupils  on  day  duty  are  from 
7  A.  M.  to  7  P.  M.  ;  for  those  on  night  duty  from  7  p.  M.  to 
7  A.  M.  A  rest  of  a  few  days  is  always  given  to  pupils 
after  a  term  of  night  duty.  One  hour  daily  is  also  given 
for  rest,  besides  one  afternoon  weekly  and  half  of  Sunday. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  work  of  the  trained  nurse  in 
active  service  is  so  exhausting  that  a  large  number  break 
down,  and  alarmists  have  given  the  limit  of  such  service 
as  ten  years.  That  this  is  a  mistake  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  many  trained  nurses  who  are  in  excellent  health  have 
been  actively  engaged  in  their  profession  for  a  much 
longer  period.  Of  course,  if  the  nurse  disregards  the 
demand  of  the  body  for  reasonable  rest,  if  she  is  careless 
of  her  health  in  other  respects,  she  will  break  down,  as 
women  in  other  professions  break  down. 

In  well-regulated  hospitals,  though  the  hours  are  long 
and  the  work  is  hard,  the  regularity  and  system  are  con- 
ducive to  good  health.  The  diet  is  nourishing  and  sim- 
ple ;  due  regard  is  given  to  rest  and  recreation,  and  a  large 
number  of  pupils  in  training  become  stronger  during 
their  term.  Women  of  the  leisure  class,  who  had  lived 
without  any  special  aim,  find  new  interests  on  entering 
the  training  school,  and  fancied  ailments  disappear. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  207 

It  is  sometimes  stated  that  the  profession  is  overcrowded 
and  that  many  nurses  are  without  employment.  In 
nursing,  as  in  other  vocations,  there  is  always  room  at 
the  top.  An  unselfish,  earnest  woman,  with  pleasing 
manners  and  a  thorough  training,  will  find  as  much  work 
as  she  can  possibly  undertake.  The  best  nurses  are  fre- 
quently obliged  to  refuse  cases  on  account  of  their  other 
engagements.  The  compensation  for  nurses  in  private 
practice  is  $25  a  week. 

Graduate  nurses  from  several  training  schools  have 
written  works  connected  with  their  profession,  which  are 
used  as  textbooks. 

Bellevue  Training  School,  established  in  1873,  is  the 
pioneer  school  of  New  York  State,  and  points  with  justifi- 
able pride  to  an  honorable  roll  of  women  who  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  their  vocation,  and  have  served 
as  superintendents  of  schools  and  matrons  of  hospitals  in 
this  country  and  abroad.  Blackwell's  Island  Training 
School  was  opened  in  1875,  and  the  New  York  Hospital 
School  was  the  next  in  order.  Our  first  class  was  gradu- 
ated in  1878. 

Our  alumnae  association  numbers  two  hundred.  Its 
meetings  are  held  monthly,  for  social  intercourse,  as  well 
as  for  the  discussion  of  subjects  in  relation  to  the  work 
and  interests  of  the  trained  nurse. 

The  training  school  endeavours  to  keep  in  touch  with 
all  of  its  graduates.  Some  have  married  and  no  longer 
practise  their  profession.  Many  have  travelled  far,  but 
we  rarely  lose  communication  with  any  one.  They  want 
to  hear  of  the  beloved  hospital  and  school,  and  they 
write  of  their  joys  and  sorrows,  their  prosperity  or 
reverses,  assured  of  sympathy  and  interest  from  former 
teachers  and  companions.  There  is  a  class  feeling  among 
nurses,  a  love  of  alma  mater,  kindred  to  that  which  exists 


208  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

in  graduates  of  other  schools,  and  to  which  is  due  much 
of  human  kindness  and  helpfulness. 

IRENE  H.  SUTLIFFE. 

The  foregoing  account  of  the  training  of  a  nurse,  while 
derived  from  experience  in  one  institution  in  New  York 
City,  is  substantially  true  of  the  practice  in  all  other  insti- 
tutions of  its  class.  The  salary  paid  to  a  trained  nurse  in 
all  the  States  is  about  the  same,  being  seldom  less  than 
$20,  even  in  small  cities,  and  seldom  more  than  $25. 
Nurses  can  be  found  to  work  for  less,  but  the  graduates 
of  the  hospitals  and  training  schools  are  sure  of  the  in- 
come named. 


WOMEN  AS  OPTICIANS. 

They  Are  Now  Making  Their  Mark. — Several  of  Them 
Are  Regular  Attendants  at  Conventions. 

THE  American  Association  of  Opticians  seldom  meets 
without  having  present  several  women  oculists  and  opti- 
cians. Among  those  who  took  part  in  a  recent  gathering 
and  exhibition  were  Miss  Annie  E.  Stark,  a  refracting 
optician,  of  St.  John,  N.  B. ;  Mrs.  William  C.  C.  Ball,  of 
Bridgeport,  Conn. ;  Mrs.  Emma  Beckwith,  of  New  York 
City,  and  Mrs.  L.  Beckmann,  of  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Mrs.  Beckwith  says:  "Although  the  thought  of  becom- 
ing an  optician  seldom  occurs  to  a  woman,  this  field  offers 
many  advantages.  In  the  first  place,  fitting  eyes  is  a 
peculiarly  delicate  matter,  and  a  trained  hand,  eye  and 
mind  are  necessary.  With  study  and  experience  any  intel- 
ligent woman  may  acquire  efficiency.  Then,  too,  the  pro- 
fession is  not  crowded. 


LEARNED  PROFESSIONS.  209 

"  Before  starting  to  take  a  regular  course  of  lectures  I 
advise  buying  a  reliable  treatise  on  the  eye  and  becoming 
familiar  with  the  formation  of  the  organ.  This  will  be  a 
great  aid  in  comprehending  the  lectures.  A  good  book 
will  cost  from  $i  to  $2. 

"As  the  best  teachers  are  in  New  York  City,  I  should 
advise  that  a  course  of  study  be  taken  here.  There  are 
1  schools '  where  a  diploma  is  given  after  ten  days'  study, 
at  a  cost  of  $25.  Gradually,  by  experience  and  observa- 
tion, combined  with  natural  '  gumption,'  a  woman  may 
became  a  practical  optician. 

" '  Shall  I  meet  many  obstacles  ? '  I  am  often  asked. 
Yes;  there  are  many  obstacles,  as  in  other  occupations. 
It  takes  courage,  perseverance  and  patience  to  get 
through.  I  advise  taking  a  place  as  a  clerk  in  a  jewelry 
store  which  has  an  optical  department,  and  working  one's 
way  up.  One  may  open  an  optical  shop  at  one's  home. 
Many  men  have  done  this,  and  go  about  on  different 
days  to  small  towns,  having  office  hours  in  each  place, 
where  they  may  be  consulted. 

"  As  I  have  said  before,  one  must  be  thoroughly  in  ear- 
nest. In  this  new  avenue  for  women  they  must  gain  their 
own  foothold,  in  spite  of  hindrances.  There  are  a  few 
women  physicians  who  make  a  specialty  of  the  eye  and 
ear  practice;  most  of  these  women,  however,  are  in  the 
West.  Notable  among  them  is  Dr.  Emma  C.  Boice,  of 
Toledo,  Ohio.  She  has  supported  herself  and  her  parents 
for  many  years  in  this  branch  of  the  profession.  In  East 
Saginaw,  Mich.,  there  is  another  successful  woman  in  this 
branch. 

"  It  costs  from  $500  to  $1,000  properly  to  equip  an 
optician's  rooms.  Yet  a  less  pretentious  scale  would  be 
satisfactory  as  a  beginning.  There  are  several  items  of 
furniture  absolutely  necessary,  such  as  a  test  case,  the 


210  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

retinascope  and  a  few  smaller  items  which  may  be  pur- 
chased for  about  $200. 

"  On  the  whole,  I  should  say  that  when  once  started  in 
the  study  of  the  eye  one  does  not  want  to  be  contented 
with  being  an  optician.  The  temptation  to  go  on  and 
become  an  oculist  is  strong,  and  the  work  can  be  learned 
while  one  is  a  practising  optician,  though  a  college  exami- 
nation is  necessary  to  gain  a  diploma." 


PROFESSION  OF  THE  LIBRARIAN. 

AN  ENVIRONMENT  OF  BOOKS. 

Women  Hold  Their  Own  as  Skilled  Librarians. — Library 
Schools  and  the  Prospects  of  Competent  Graduates. 

MUCH  confusion  exists  in  the  minds  of  women  ambitious 
to  take  up  library  work  as  to  the  purpose  and  organiza- 
tion of  libraries.  This  is  probably  due  to  the  prevalent 
idea  that  it  is  the  love  of  books  that  is  the  making  of  the 
successful  librarian.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  modern 
librarian  is  actuated  as  little  by  a  love  of  books  as  is  the 
produce  broker  by  a  love  of  grain. 

Every  library  is  governed  by  a  body  of  trustees  or 
directors  representing  the  institution,  society,  city  or  other 
supporting  power  of  the  library.  This  body  appoints  an 
executive,  called  either  a  librarian,  a  superintendent  or  a 
director.  It  is  this  individual  who,  in  the  public  mind, 
controls  the  affairs  of  the  library.  This  head  librarian  is 
assisted  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  by  one  or  more 
assistant  librarians  and  a  more  or  less  numerous  staff. 
In  a  large  library  this  staff  includes  a  business  manager, 
a  bookkeeper,  stenographers,  pages,  electricians,  engi- 
neers, printers,  binders,  janitors,  cataloguers  and  attend- 
ants. In  a  small  library  the  staff  dwindles  to  librarian, 
cataloguer  and  attendants,  while  in  the  smallest  library 
all  the  functions  of  the  above-cited  employees  are  vested 
in  the  librarian. 


212  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

As  in  teaching  and  acting,  the  two  professions  which 
claim  with  library  work  the  largest  proportion  of  salaried 
women,  the  preparation  is  more  or  less  perfunctory  com- 
pared to  that  demanded  by  the  learned  professions. 
This  is  natural  when  it  is  considered  that  in  either  of  the 
former  occupations  success  for  a  woman  depends  more 
largely  upon  temperament  than  upon  a  knowledge  of  any 
one  of  the  exact  sciences. 

The  problem  which  confronts  the  average  parents  of 
collegeable  girls  is  the  vital  one  of  expense,  i.  e. :  Can 
they  afford  to  have  the  girl  give  up  four  years'  time  at 
the  end  of  which  she  will  have  no  especial  equipment,  or 
is  it  a  better  policy  to  specialize  without  the  general  pre- 
paration to  be  obtained  at  college  ? 

A  general  answer  to  this  question  naturally  must  be 
conditional.  In  library  work  the  college-bred  girl,  as  a 
rule,  produces  better  results  than  her  non-collegiate  com- 
petitor. The  college-bred  girl  has  had  more  thorough 
mental  discipline,  a  more  definite  purpose,  and  probably 
wider  personal  experience  —  all  of  which  conduce  to  a 
desirable  poise  in  the  professional  woman.  Moreover, 
she  will  have  a  reading  knowledge  of  at  least  two  foreign 
languages ;  a  practical  experience  in  the  use  of  reference 
books;  an  acquaintance  with  general  literature  and  his- 
tory, all  important  accomplishments  of  the  library 
worker.  Even  while  attending  college  a  girl  may  make 
some  preparation  toward  an  acquaintance  with  library 
methods  by  doing  volunteer  work  in  the  college  library. 

The  young  girl  fresh  from  high  school  who  cannot 
afford  four  years  at  college,  and  who  has  decided  upon 
library  work  as  her  future  occupation,  can  follow  one  of 
two  courses;  she  can  do  volunteer  work  in  the  local 
library,  or  enter  one  of  the  library  schools.  These  latter 
are  the  library  school  connected  with  the  New  York 


PROFESSION  OF  THE  LIBRARIAN.       213 

State  University,  Melvil  Dewey,  director;  the  library 
school  at  Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn,  Miss  M.  W.  Plummer, 
director,  and  the  school  connected  with  the  Illinois  State 
University  at  Champaign,  Miss  K.  Sharpe,  director. 
The  Albany  School  and  the  library  department  of  Am- 
herst  College  also  conduct  summer  schools.  Any  infor- 
mation as  to  cost,  requirements,  etc.,  'may  be  had  on  ap- 
plication to  the  addresses  given.  If  she  does  volunteer 
work  in  the  local  library  the  girl  is  called  an  apprentice, 
and  her  term  of  apprenticeship  may  vary  from  three  to 
twelve  months.  She  receives  no  salary,  and  her  instruc- 
tion is  desultory  and  rudimentary.  Her  apprenticeship 
will  have  identified  her  more  or  less  with  that  particular 
library,  and  her  work  having  proven  satisfactory  she  may 
receive  a  promise  of  a  place  when  a  vacancy  occurs,  or 
she  will  have  to  take  her  chances  with  others  in  another 
library.  This  apprenticeship  system  is  in  operation  in 
most  of  the  large  libraries.  Some  require  a  preliminary 
examination,  in  others  the  applicant  may  qualify  after  a 
personal  interview  with  the  librarian. 

If  she  enters  a  library  school  she  must  pass  a  more  or 
less  rigid  entrance  examination  and  apply  herself  to  a 
course  of  training  covering  from  one  to  two  years.  Dur- 
ing this  time  she  is  instructed,  largely  theoretically,  in 
the  various  clerical  occupations,  and  in  the  use  of  the  me- 
chanical and  other  devices  of  the  modern  library.  At 
the  end  of  that  course  she  is  launched  as  a  thoroughly 
qualified  library  worker,  her  instructors  exert  themselves 
to  secure  a  place  for  her,  and  the  future  seems  to  smile. 

In  the  profession  she  is  about  to  enter  the  library 
worker  will  find  various  branches  of  work,  viz.,  clerical, 
executive  and  special.  The  former  is  to  a  large  extent 
the  only  one  covered  by  the  training  schools.  It  com- 
prises keepers  of  the  library  records,  copyists  and  cata- 


214  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

loguers.  The  executive  branch  includes  the  librarian  and 
assistants,  and  is  occupied  largely  by  people  of  long  ex- 
perience or  of  exceptional  personal  ability.  Special  work 
is  limited  in  scope,  and  is  found  only  in  the  large  libra- 
ries. It  is  confined  to  persons  of  special  attainments,  lin- 
guists, experts  in  rare  books  and  manuscripts,  etc. 

The  salary  of  a  graduate  volunteer  worker  or  appren- 
tice will  probably  begin  at  $30  and  rise  in  easy  stages 
until  it  reaches  $40,  when  there  will  probably  be  a  long 
pause  before  the  next  gradual  ascent  to  $50  per  month, 
the  maximum  limit  for  some  years.  How  long  a  girl  re- 
ceives a  salary  which  barely  suffices  to  pay  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  especially  in  a  large  city,  depends  in  a  small 
degree  upon  fortuitous  circumstances,  but  almost  wholly 
upon  the  girl  herself.  Her  appointment  and  advance- 
ment in  this,  as  in  any  well-conducted  business,  rests 
upon  the  fact  that  she  will  have  satisfied  her  employers, 
and  that  she  will  perform  the  duties  assigned  to  her  more 
sincerely  and  more  intelligently  than  any  othei  available 
person. 

A  training-school  graduate,  on  the  other  hand,  begins 
as  a  rule  at  $50,  while  $75  may  be  considered  the  average 
salary  for  experienced  work.  This  means  that  the  em- 
ployee receiving  it  has  charge,  probably,  of  some  special 
line  of  work,  and  is  officially  regarded  as  head  of  a  depart- 
ment. The  salary  of  a  woman  head  librarian  varies  with 
the  size  of  the  library  which  she  controls.  A  couple  of 
years  ago  there  was  a  woman  in  the  profession  who  drew 
a  salary  of  $2,500,  but  she  married,  and  the  place  is  now 
filled  by  a  man. 

The  average  labouring  day  for  the  library  worker  is 
from  9  to  5,  and,  in  addition,  night  duty  from  6  to  9  on 
alternate  nights  each  week.  Libraries  that  are  open  on 
Sundays  usually  have  a  special  staff  for  Sunday  duty. 


PROFESSION  OF  THE  LIBRARIAN.       215 

There  are  few  holidays,  for  the  custom  of  keeping  libra- 
ries open  every  day  in  the  year  is  being  more  and  more 
generally  adopted.  Vacations  vary  from  two  to  four 
weeks.  The  opening  for  an  enterprising  girl  is  fair.  Such 
a  girl  will  discover  that  library  work  is  not  confined  to 
work  in  a  library.  She  will  learn  that  the  facilities  she 
has  acquired  in  the  use  of  indices,  encyclopaedias,  diction- 
aries and  her  knowledge  of  languages  can  be  marketed  in 
the  office  of  the  newspaper,  the  lawyer,  doctor  or  minister  ; 
in  publishing  houses,  to  compilers  and  to  journalists.  In- 
telligent preparation  of  bibliographic  material  can  be  put 
to  a  variety  of  uses  not  strictly  within  the  limits  of  library 
work. 

The  girl  who  finds  employment  in  a  library  realises 
that  the  fin-de-siecle  note  of  specialization  has  era  of 
romance.  To-day  it  has  developed  the  reference  libra- 
rian, the  school  the  map,  manuscript,  newspaper  and  club, 
Oriental  history,  Hebraic,  science  and  blind  librarian, 
besides  numerous  other  variants  of  the  dear  departed 
custodian  of  the  library  of  old. 

These  and  other  positions  in  the  profession  more  espe- 
cially adapted  to  women  are  not  the  result  of  training 
received  in  any  library  school.  They  can  be  filled  suc- 
cessfully only  by  a  woman  having  the  innate  qualifications 
for  the  work,  gifts  beyond  the  power  of  schools  to  im- 
part. Lacking  these  qualifications,  she  becomes  a  mere 
automaton,  a  clerk. 

The  training  of  a  library  school  fits  the  pupil  only  for 
secondary  or  non-executive  places  in  average  libraries, 
the  salaries  of  which  vary  from  $30  to  $75,  advance  de- 
pending upon  individual  effort.  To  sum  up,  a  college  edu- 
cation is  desirable  for  the  library  worker;  a  knowledge 
of  languages  and  history  is  essential;  specialization  is 
advisable.  The  prospects  are  that  women  will  continue 


216  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

to  outnumber  men  in  the  library  profession,  because  they 
enjoy  the  environment,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  com* 
pensations  in  library  work.  This  weakness,  if  weakness 
it  may  be  called,  enables  women  to  consider  lower  sala- 
ries than  men  would  accept,  and,  having  less  regard  for 
money  value  than  men,  they  contentedly  peg  away,  year 
after  year,  on  a  stipend  which  is  gradually  crowding  men 
out  of  the  lower  ranks  of  the  profession. 

ADELAIDE  P.  HASS. 


IN  CIRCULATING  LIBRARIES. 

THE  librarian  who  loves  children  and  who  makes  a 
specialty  of  the  study  of  child  nature  will  be,  I  believe, 
the  librarian  of  the  future.  Many  of  the  circulating  libra- 
ries now  pay  particular  attention  to  the  guidance  of  the 
young  in  the  choice  of  suitable  books.  We  regard  the 
public  library  as  the  supplement  to  the  public  school,  as 
the  former  furnishes  the  readers  and  the  latter  the  books. 

In  our  East  Broadway  branch  of  the  Aguilar  Library 
one-half  of  the  circulation  is  among  boys  and  girls. 

In  the  last  two  years  we  have  made  a  specialty  of  pic- 
ture bulletins  for  the  children.  We  cut  the  pictures  from 
books  too  dilapidated  for  further  circulation,  and  from 
illustrated  papers  and  catalogues.  These  illustrated  bulle- 
tins, mounted  on  large  squares  of  pasteboard,  are  hung  in 
conspicuous  places,  and  the  children  stand  about  them  in 
crowds  studying  them  eagerly.  We  have  posted  illus- 
trated bulletins  of  naval  heroes  and  ships;  scenes  in  the 
Philippines,  in  Cuba,  in  Porto  Rico,  and  from  the  lives 
of  famous  men  whose  birthdays  occurred  in  the  month. 
On  the  death  of  Bismarck  we  posted  a  bulletin  with  illus- 
trations covering  some  of  the  most  important  events  in 


PROFESSION  OF  THE  LIBRARIAN.       217 

his  career.  We  have  similar  ones  illustrating  the  lives  of 
Washington,  Lincoln,  Grant  and  Franklin;  scenes  from 
Shakespeare  and  from  the  works  of  a  number  of  authors, 
and  an  illustrated  list  of  books  for  boys  and  girls. 

All  of  our  books  are  carefully  selected;  we  have  not  a 
book  in  the  library  that  is  not  a  good  book.  Among  the 
most  popular  juvenile  books  Pratt's  "  American  History 
Stories,"  "  Grimm's  Fairy  Tales,"  "  Life  of  Napoleon," 
"Franklin's  Autobiography,"  Putnam's  "Life  of  Lincoln," 
Cheney's  "  Civil  War,"  Higginson's  "  United  States  His- 
tory," "Wood's  Natural  History,"  "American  Boys' 
Handy  Book,"  Coffin's  "  Boys  of  '61,"  "  Our  Bodies  and 
How  We  Live,"  Lamb's  "Tales  from  Shakespeare,"  "  Lit- 
tle Women,"  "Little  Lord  Fauntleroy"  and  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin"  are  in  constant  demand,  and  so  are  Longfellow's 
and  Tennyson's  poems. 

Some  statistics  of  last  year  gathered  from  librarians 
throughout  the  country  declare  that  the  average  salary  of 
new  librarians  is  $650,  and  that  cataloguers  receive  in  the 
beginning  about  $60  a  month. 

The  pioneer  library  school  at  Albany  is  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  three 
others  have  grown  out  of  it.  These  are  connected  with 
Pratt  Institute,  in  Brooklyn ;  the  Drexel  Institute,  in  Phil- 
adelphia, and  the  University  of  Illinois,  at  Champaign. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  one  acquires  a  wide 
knowledge  of  books  in  the  library.  This  is  unquestion- 
ably true  of  the  outside  of  the  book,  but  the  demands  of 
the  work  are  so  exacting  and  there  is  so  much  detail  that 
requires  attention,  that  few  assistants  have  time  for  exten- 
sive reading  and  one  should  have  the  mind  well  stored 
with  knowledge  of  good  literature  before  entering  the 
profession. 

PAULINE  LEIPZIGER. 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES. 

WOMEN  AS  OIL  PAINTERS. 

A  Foreign  Education  Not  Necessary. — Cost  of  Tuition. — 
How  the  Art  Schools  Aid  Artists  by  Creating  Buyers. 

WOMEN  have  made  themselves  famous  with  the  brush. 
Others  in  goodly  numbers  have  won  a  good  support. 
The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  not  to  dwell  upon  the  great 
achievements  of  women  painters,  but  to  point  out  the  way 
in  which  any  woman  with  an  eye  for  colour  and  form 
may  become  an  artist  in  oil,  and  the  cost. 

It  requires  as  long  to  master  the  art  of  painting  as  to 
become  proficient  in  any  other.  As  many  years  of  study 
are  necessary,  for  instance,  as  to  master  the  violin. 

Equally  with  music,  the  talent  for  painting,  the  desire 
for  it,  patience  to  conquer  the  technique  and  industry, 
must  exist  in  the  aspirant  before  she  begins  to  study. 
Having  made  up  her  mind  as  to  her  fitness,  the  student 
should  select  her  school  or  studio,  and  settle  down  to 
what  may  be  called,  without  any  desire  to  frighten  her, 
several  years  of  pure  drudgery. 

The  first  step  in  an  artistic  education  is  to  draw  from 
casts — simply  at  first — afterward  attending  to  detail. 
Personally,  I  do  not  believe  in  working  too  long  in  black 
and  white.  The  feeling  for  colour  should  be  cultivated 
almost  from  the  first.  In  the  school  of  William  M.  Chase 
this  theory  is  followed  out  with  apparently  good  results. 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  219 

Many  other  teachers  encourage  their  pupils  to  attempt 
colour  along  with  their  charcoal  work. 

It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  go  abroad  for  an  artistic 
education.  It  is  not  even  desirable,  unless  the  student 
has  a  good  knowledge  of  French,  because  it  stands  to 
reason  that  criticism  filtered  througrj  an  interpreter  must 
lose  in  interest  and  value.  How  many  people  realise 
that  American  artists  rank  with  the  French  and  Dutch 
to-day,  and  are  acknowledged  to  stand  head  and  shoul- 
ders above  the  English  and  German?  The  best  portrait 
painter  in  the  world  is  an  American — John  Sargent.  The 
first  sculptor,  MacMonnies,  and  the  first  black-and-white 
artist,  Abbey,  are  both  Americans.  That  all  three  live  in 
Europe  is  the  fault  of  their  fellow-countrymen.  Art 
is  beginning  to  be  appreciated  on  this  side  of  the  ocean, 
but  imported  art  is  yet  held  by  only  too  many  people  to 
be  superior  to  the  native  product. 

Every  large  city  has  good  schools  of  art  where  the  pre- 
liminary studies  may  be  carried  on,  including  the  drawing 
from  casts  and  from  life  and  painting  from  still  life  and 
models.  The  Art  Students'  League,  in  New  York  City, 
has  a  high  reputation  as  a  school,  and  the  number  of  its 
students  increases  from  year  to  year. 

The  average  tuition  at  a  good  school  costs  from  $15  to 
$25  a  month.  It  is  not  desirable  that  a  student  should 
remain  too  long  under  one  instructor  or  even  in  one 
school.  Traditions  are  good  servants,  but  dangerous 
masters;  and  originality  is  too  precious  a  quality  to  risk 
losing. 

From  eight  to  ten  years  of  study  may  be  counted  upon 
as  necessary  to  the  serious  artist.  After  one  has  the  re- 
quired training  in  drawing,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  paint  in  a 
private  studio.  There  more  attention  can  be  paid  to  in- 
dividual development  of  each  pupil,  and  the  personality 


220  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

of  the  student  has  a  better  opportunity  to  express  itself 
than  in  a  crowded  classroom.  A  little  foreign  life  is 
greatly  to  be  desired,  but  is  no  more  necessary  to  art 
education  than  to  any  other.  It  adds  to  one's  breadth  of 
view  and  general  culture,  and  is  so  far  valuable. 

After  all  these  years  of  preparation,  what  does  art  pay  ? 
In  money,  not  much — the  truth  must  be  told.  I  have 
often  wondered  in  what  way  many  women  artists  in  New 
York  have  managed  to  live ;  but  live  they  do,  and  happy 
they  all  seem  to  be.  Part  of  this  is  due  to  the  feminine 
genius  for  living  on  one's  income,  whatever  it  happens  to 
be.  Many  women  artists  earn  $500  a  year  and  live  on  it 
prettily  and  well.  A  few  earn  more  than  $1,000  a  year. 
Many  of  them  rely  less  on  the  sale  of  their  pictures  than 
on  illustrating  and  teaching. 

Comparatively  few  a,rtists,  men  or  women,  realise  large 
sums  from  the  sale  of  easel  pictures.  There  is  always  a 
demand  for  good  portraits.  Illustrating  for  magazines 
and  advertisements  pays  well.  Teaching  pays  best  of  all, 
and  a  good  artist  has  little  difficulty  in  obtaining  pupils, 
as  a  rule.  The  usual  price  for  giving  lessons  is  $25  a 
month,  or  $2  a,  lesson.  The  artist  receives  her  class  per- 
haps four  days  in  the  week,  reserving  two  days  for  her 
own  work. 

Of  the  hundreds  of  girls  who  annually  enter  the  art 
schools  and  classes,  small  indeed  is  the  number  who  con- 
tinue their  studies  to  the  end.  They  become  discouraged, 
drop  out  for  lack  of  funds,  marry,  take  up  designing,  go 
into  some  other  branch  of  the  art,  and  disperse  in  various 
other  ways.  But  their  brief  art  study  has  been  of  great 
advantage  to  them,  nevertheless,  in  educating  their  taste. 
It  has  been  of  advantage  to  the  craft  also  by  adding  indi- 
viduals to  the  picture-buying  public.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  in  time  the  pictures  which  adorn  the  homes  of  the 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  221 

well-to-do  will  be  sought  in  the  studios  and  not  as  now  in 
the  department  stores. 

E.  M.  SCOTT. 

For  "A  Studio  for  Colour  Study3'  see  "Society  Women 
in  Business" 


PORTRAIT  PAINTING  HARD. 

PORTRAIT  painting  is  the  most  difficult  branch  of  the 
art.  It  demands  not  only  a  longer  and  more  arduous 
training  than  any  other,  but  calls  for  certain  special  qual- 
ifications. 

Assuming  the  possession  of  talent  and  the  knack  of 
catching  likenesses,  the  portrait  painter  must  have  and 
cultivate  an  ability  to  read  character,  thus  being  able  to 
give  her  sitters  their  best  possible  pose.  An  oil  portrait 
is  not  a  photograph.  The  latter  represents  the  individual 
as  he  looked  at  the  moment;  the  former  should  be  a 
characterization  of  the  whole  man. 

The  training  of  a  portrait  painter  includes  a  more  com- 
plete study  of  the  figure  than  usual.  The  artist  must  see 
her  sitter's  body  under  the  clothing — a  not  too  easy  task, 
considering  the  exigencies  of  fashionable  dressing — and 
be  able  to  suggest  it,  while  painting  the  draperies  alone. 

Good  social  qualities  are  also  necessary.  The  artist 
must  mingle  with  the  world,  especially  with  the  kind  of 
people  who  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  portraits.  She  must 
also  have  the  tact  to  put  sitters  at  their  ease  and  bring 
out  their  agreeable  and  paintable  qualities. 

Almost  as  valuable  is  the  commercial  instinct.  Work 
must  be  exhibited  and  advertised,  so  far  as  is  legitimate. 

The  price  paid  for  an  oil  portrait,  life  size,  is  from  $500 
to  $l,ooo.  A  fair  degree  of  success  ought  to  insure  an 


222  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

income  of  from  $2,500  to  $4,000  a  year.  This,  of  course, 
supposes  that  the  reputation  of  the  artist  is  established 
and  her  vogue  attained.  The  portrait  painter  cannot  af- 
ford to  despise  popularity  and  content  herself  with  dreams 
apart  from  the  world.  She  must  be  in  the  world,  and 
know  it,  for  with  it  she  has  to  deal. 

HELEN  WATSON  PHELPS. 


PICTORIAL  ILLUSTRATION. 

Originality  the  Great  Aim. — A  Possible  Field  for  Women 
in  the  Drawing  of  Caricatures. 

IN  answer  to  a  questioner  asking  about  illustrating  as  a 
means  of  livelihood  for  women,  I  can  only  repeat  what  I 
have  said  to  the  hundreds  of  girls  who  have  come  to  me 
yearly  for  advice. 

Your  drawing-masters,  no  doubt,  say  that  you  have 
real  talent,  that  you  have  an  original  way  of  representing 
things  and  persons,  and  you  yourself  add  that  you  have  a 
genius  for  hard  work.  This  last  is  an  absolute  necessity. 
Originality  promises  success.  For  in  illustration  the  cry 
of  the  newspapers  and  of  the  younger  magazines  is: 
"  Give  us  something  new !  " 

The  lawyer  or  physician  rarely  wishes  his  own  son  to 
enter  the  same  profession,  because  he  himself  knows  of 
the  giants  in  the  way.  So,  I  suppose,  every  woman  looks 
upon  another  profession  than  her  own  as  yielding  more  of 
rose  and  less  of  thorn.  Possibly  by  gentle  guidance  the 
former  may  be  increased  and  the  latter  become  less 
evident.  There  is  no  thornless  way  to  success  in  any 
line. 

In  the  first  place,  if  you  would  be  a  good  illustrator  in 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  223 

black  and  white  you  must  conquer  two  instruments — the 
pen  and  the  brush — and  two  media — ink  and  water  colour. 
If  you  present  yourself  at  the  door  of  one  publisher  with 
your  hands  full  of  pen-and-ink  drawings,  he  will  probably 
inform  you  kindly  that  they  are  using  "wash  drawings" 
at  present.  The  very  next  art  director  you  approach  will 
undoubtedly — if  you  come  armed  only  with  "washes" — 
say  that  pen-and-ink,  dashing,  cleanly-cut  work  is  what 
he  is  looking  for.  It  will  not  do  to  let  any  opportunity 
slip.  There  are  not  too  many  of  them. 

I  well  remember  my  own  trepidation  when  asked  to 
illustrate  at  once  three  books  in  "wash."  I  had  long 
painted  in  colour,  had  taught  water  colour  in  a  college  of 
fine  arts,  but  had  done  all  of  my  work  in  aquarelle — i.  e., 
without  mixing  with  white — and  these  people  wished  the 
work  done  in  body  colour !  Such  an  order  was  not  to  be 
lost.  I  set  at  work  with  all  my  might,  took  my  drawings 
to  a  severe  critic,  paid  him  $5  an  hour  for  criticism,  and 
came  off  conqueror. 

But  it  is  better  to  be  prepared.  Learn  facility  with  the 
pen.  Make  the  line,  the  blot,  the  absence  of  either 
expressive.  Learn  to  put  in.  Learn  to  leave  out.  Use 
water  colour,  opaque  and  transparent,  with  readiness  and 
certainty.  Thus  you  will  be  saved  the  tears  that  were 
my  own  portion  in  this  struggle. 

I  believe  there  is  a  field  for  a  higher  class  of  caricature 
— that  which  makes  jollity  without  vulgarity.  It  seems  to 
me  that  the  delicate  wit  of  woman  is  peculiarly  fitted  to 
this  field.  But,  to  enter  it,  one  needs  a  good  knowledge 
of  anatomy  and  of  the  costumes  and  customs  of  the  pres- 
ent and  past. 

She  must  have  no  anachronism  in  the  dress  of  her 
characters.  It  must  be  correct  to  the  buckle  of  a  shoe  or 
the  hilt  of  a  sword;  to  the  band  upon  a  hat  or  the  size 


224  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

and  place  of  a  button.  These  will  all  cry  aloud  her  know- 
ledge or  her  ignorance.  The  settings  must  be  in  har- 
mony. Men  like  Abbey  travel  hundred  of  miles  and  live 
in  remote  places  for  months,  in  order  to  make  sure  of 
proper  appointments  for  their  figures.  But,  although 
work  is  endless,  the  study  is  charming,  and  the  great 
libraries  afford  fine  facilities. 

An  illustrator  must  have  an  eye  quick  to  note  individ- 
uality or  eccentricity  in  the  character  to  be  represented, 
and  must  make  these  felt.  She  must  note  characteristic 
poses,  motions  and  expressions  of  people  and  animals — 
for  everything  in  the  heaven  above  and  in  the  earth  be- 
neath, to  say  nothing  of  that  which  is  in  the  water  under 
the  earth,  is  expected  from  her  hand. 

So,  the  more  knowledge  you  have,  dear  Helen,  and  the 
broader  and  more  decided  and  quick  you  are,  the  better 
for  your  success  in  this  line  of  work. 

You  must  be  able  to  draw  from  the  life,  rapidly  and 
with  certainty,  and  your  perspective  must  not  be  at  fault. 
It  does  not  matter  where  or  how  you  learn  all  this,  whether 
in  your  own  town,  in  a  college  of  fine  arts,  by  yourself,  or 
in  a  New  York  school  of  art.  One  of  the  most  success- 
ful illustrators  of  to-day  studied — and  he  studied;  there 
was  no  shirking — in  one  of  the  New  York  schools  of  art 
for  three  years.  Then  he  started  out  to  face  the  world 
alone.  That  was  three  years  ago.  To-day  he  has  $5,500 
worth  of  orders  awaiting  him. 

Having  learned  the  art,  you  will  want  work.  You  must 
seek  it;  it  will  not  come  to  you.  You  can  send  samples 
by  mail  or  you  can  present  yourself  to  the  numerous  art 
directors  and  await  their  decision  and  order.  They  will 
think  $5  a  good  price  at  first  for  a  small  drawing. 
Charles  Dana  Gibson  received  $2  for  his  earliest  produc- 
tions. I  shall  not  soon  forget  the  pleasure  with  which  I 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  225 

received  $15  for  three  single-figure  drawings — my  first 
money  earned  in  this  line  of  work. 

Later  you  will  receive  $5  each  for  the  figures  in  a  single 
drawing,  or  you  will  be  paid  according  to  space.  From 
$15  to  $50  will  be  offered  for  a  drawing  of  size  and  con- 
sequence. One  hundred  dollars  a  page  is  paid  by  a  few 
magazines,  and  the  double  page  in  some  of  the  weeklies 
brings  from  $150  to  $200. 

Some  women  sign  the  last  name,  thus  giving  the  idea 
that  the  work  is  done  by  masculine  hands;  others  are 
frank  and  acknowledge  their  femininity  with  the  whole 
name.  It  is  a  matter  of  taste.  The  work  tells  its  own 
story. 

I  have  gone  with  drawings  to  a  new  door,  and  have 
found  tall,  robust  men  sitting  in  line,  each  with  his  un- 
mistakable parcel  of  drawings  to  be  submitted.  Such  a 
sight  tends  to  make  the  heart  feel  the  force  of  gravity 
very  strongly,  for  a  man's  work  will  be  taken  every  time 
if  it  is  as  good  as  yours  and  costs  no  more. 

Too  many  work  for  nothing  at  first,  and  are  so  glad  to 
see  their  drawings  in  print  that  they  willingly  give  them, 
in  the  hope  that  their  appearance  will  help  toward  fame. 
This  is  a  poor  beginning.  Art  directors  know  each 
other's  policies.  It  will  not  help  you. 

Men  cry  out  that  women  crowd  their  partially  educated 
entities  into  the  various  fields  of  work.  For  this  reason  I 
do  not  show  you  a  short  and  royal  road  to  success.  Pre- 
pare yourself  thoroughly,  work  hard  and  with  intelli- 
gent earnestness,  and  men  as  well  as  women  will  welcome 
you  to  a  place  beside  them. 

IZORA  C.  CHANDLER. 


226  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

TALENT  FOR  SCULPTURE. 

It  Is  Possessed  by  Many  Women. — Practice  of  the  Art 

Calls  for  Some  Athletic  Ability,  as  Well  as  a 

Distinct  Taste  for  Design. 

THERE  is  only  one  reason  why  women  with  a  talent  for 
sculpture  should  not  reach  the  same  pre-eminence  in  this 
art  as  in  others,  and  that  is  they  do  not  all  have  the  mus- 
cular strength  and  physical  endurance  which  sculpture  in 
its  largest  form  calls  for. 

As  for  the  success  of  feminine  sculptors,  many  women 
have  all  the  requisite  qualifications.  There  are  too  many 
well-known  examples  to  leave  the  matter  any  longer  in 
doubt. 

Few  understand  the  mechanical  process  of  making  a 
statue.  "  Chisel  in  hand  stood  the  sculptor  boy  "  is  less 
a  fact  than  a  poeticism.  The  sculptor  handles  the  chisel 
only  for  the  last  touches,  after  the  marble  has  left  the 
hands  of  the  expert  workman,  been  "pointed  up,"  to  use 
the  studio  phrase.  The  first  step  after  the  design  has 
been  studied  on  paper  is  the  building  of  a  suitable  skele- 
ton, over  which  wet  clay  is  packed  in  rude  semblance  to 
the  figure  to  be  modelled.  If  it  is  a  portrait  bust  or  a 
small  figure,  the  clay  model  is  made  the  actual  size,  but  if 
it  is  a  design  for  a  monument,  fountain,  or  anything  else 
of  heroic  proportions,  it  is  executed  first  in  miniature. 

In  the  clay,  or  wax,  the  sculptor  creates ;  the  bronze  or 
marble  is  simply  a  mechanical  reproduction  of  this  clay 
model.  The  sculptor  uses  a  few  simple  tools  of  wood  and 
wire,  but  the  fingers  are  the  best  and  most  sympathetic 
tools,  "and  are  used  more  than  all  the  others. 

The  clay  model,  beautiful  but  perishable,  is  next  cast  in 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  227 

plaster  of  paris,  or  burned  in  terra  cotta.  This  is  done 
by  workmen  usually  under  the  artist's  supervision.  The 
old  Greek  sculptors  undoubtedly  did  all,  or  nearly  all,  of 
the  marble  work  themselves. 

The  training  of  a  sculptor  includes  drawing  from  the 
antique  and  from  life,  and  modelling  t  in  clay  from  casts 
and  the  nude  model.  The  nude,  always  the  nude  !  No 
matter  what  branch  of  art  one  expects  to  pursue,  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  drawing  is  absolutely  necessary. 

I  cannot  too  strongly  urge  American  girls  to  make 
their  first  three  years'  study  in  their  own  country.  It  is 
worse  than  folly  to  go  to  France  unprepared  to  work 
from  life.  No  account  is  taken  in  the  ateliers  of  any  ex- 
cept advanced  students. 

Six  years'  work  in  the  schools  ought  sufficiently  to 
prepare  the  young  sculptor  to  take  a  studio  of  her  own, 
where  she  may  work  on  original  models,  getting  criti- 
cisms from  masters  as  she  needs  them.  Her  develop- 
ment is  then  a  matter  of  time,  ability  and  opportunity. 

Sculpture,  as  a  profession,  is  somewhat  expensive  to 
pursue,  and  not  always  immediately  remunerative. 
There  are  as  many  chances  to  make  "  pot-boilers,"  as  in 
other  forms  of  art. 

Every  sculptor  must  understand  the  making  of  casts,  as 
he  not  infrequently,  in  making  portrait  busts  and  statues, 
casts  the  sitter's  ear,  nose  or  hand.  Sometimes  he  makes 
a  complete  life  mask. 

The  cost  of  a  model  for  a  fountain  or  any  large  piece  is 
very  great,  but  the  sculptor  is  not  required  to  bear  it 
himself.  He  submits  the  design,  and  if  it  is  accepted 
money  is  furnished  him  to  complete  his  part  of  the  work. 

Lately  the  art  of  portrait  statuettes  has  been  revived, 
and  is  rapidly  gaining  popularity.  The  lines  of  the 
modern  figure  and  the  conventionalities  of  modern  dress 


228  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

are  often  charming  in  a  statuette,  when  they  would  be  far 
from  agreeable  in  a  statue. 

Besides  making  portraits  the  sculptor  designs  foun- 
tains, trophy  cups,  to  be  executed  in  silver  or  bronze  ; 
doors,  mantels,  lamps,  and,  of  course,  original  figures  and 
groups,  pure  conceptions  of  beauty  expressed  in  form 
alone.  This  is  the  highest  pinnacle  of  his  art,  the  goal 
of  the  sculptor's  ambition. 

"  Have  little  care  that  life  is  brief,  and  less  that  Art  is 

long. 
"  Success    is    in   the   silences,   though    Fame   is    in   the 

Song." 

ENID  YANDELL. 


To  the  foregoing  the  following  facts  are  added  by  the 
Editor  : 

A  portrait  bust  costs  the  purchaser  from  $500  upward, 
executed  in  marble.  In  bronze  the  cost  is  perhaps  a 
third  less. 

The  marble  costs  from  $125  to  $300,  according  to  the 
amount  of  work  to  be  done. 

A  portrait  statuette  is  worth  $100,  more  or  less. 

For  large  statues  the  compensation  of  the  sculptor  is 
large,  and  is  made  the  subject  of  special  negotiations. 


ROCKWOOD  EMPLOYS  WOMEN. 

They  Are  Better  Than  Men  in  Modern  Photography. — Print- 
ing and  Retouching  Confided  to  Feminine  Fingers. — 
Only  One  Trouble,  TJiey  Marry  Too  Soon. 

IN  my  long  career  as  a  photographer  I  think  I  have 
proved  my  faith  by  my  works  in  employing  women  in 
every  department  of  my  business  in  which  they  are  avail- 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  229 

able — everywhere  except  in  the  handling  of  large  cameras 
in  outdoor  work. 

In  the  first  place,  women  are  peculiarly  fitted  to  occu- 
pations in  which  there  is  much  detail.  This  is  in  strong 
evidence  in  the  sphere  of  the  household,  where  good 
housekeeping  is  another  name  for  the  careful  doing  of 
many  little  things. 

Photography  is  a  mass  of  detail  to  which  few  men  are 
fitted,  and,  at  the  best,  are  never  equal  to  women.  I 
might  say  that  men  who  are  good  at  small  things  never 
accomplish  great  ones. 

Secondly,  women  are  more  conscientious  in  the  perform- 
ance of  all  little  things,  even  where  men  are  capable  of  it, 
than  men  are.  Now  that  the  "  silvering  "  of  photographic 
paper  is  no  longer  done  to  any  great  extent,  and  the  sen- 
sitized sheets  come  to  us  in  gross  packages  ready  for  the 
printer,  it  is  no  longer  "  dirty  work."  But  even  under 
the  old  auspices  I  employed  a  woman  as  head  printer  for 
nineteen  years,  and  have  never  had  her  superior  in  neat- 
ness, quickness  and  reliability.  In  fact,  her  pupil  is  now 
my  head  printer,  and  has  been  for  these  twenty  years. 

In  photography  there  is  room  for  almost  every  grade  of 
ability,  from  the  simplest  work  of  "pasting  "  the  photo- 
graphs, through  to  the  elaborate  finishing  in  water  colours, 
India  ink,  etc. 

The  one  trouble  we  have  had  is  the  lack  of  the  idea  of 
permanency  in  the  work.  Almost  every  young  girl  goes 
into  photography  as  she  does  into  another  trade  or  busi- 
ness, as  a  stepping-stone  to  matrimony.  This  is  a  handi- 
cap to  their  proper  education  or  fitting  to  the  higher 
branches  of  the  art. 

If  a  man  marries,  it  does  not  necessarily  change  his 
occupation,  but  it  is  ordinarily  an  incentive  to  advance- 
ment in  his  art  or  work.  Women  when  married  rightly 


230  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

expect  that  they  are  to  be  no  longer  breadwinners,  and 
rarely  pursue  their  occupations  with  the  earnestness  and 
intensity  that  they  would  if  the  idea  of  marriage  were  not 
constantly  before  them. 

This,  I  say,  is  the  reason  why  there  are  not  more  really 
skilled  women  in  the  higher  branches  of  the  art — the  artis- 
tic work.  If  they  looked  forward  to  their  occupation  as 
a  life  work  they  would  acquire  a  skill  in  all  departments 
of  photography  to  which  men  could  not  attain.  I  say 
this  in  shame  for  my  own  sex,  and  in  thorough  apprecia- 
tion of  our  heaven-blest  gift,  women.  I  am  not  a  celibate 
and  am  not  advocating  the  celibacy  of  women,  but  only 
explaining  the  reasons  why  I  think  women  are  not  almost 
solely  used  in  photography. 

Speaking  to  a  distinguished  coadjutor  one  day,  I  asked 
why  he  didn't  employ  women.  His  answer  was,  "  The 
good  ones  are  always  getting  married." 

The  departments  of  photography  where  intelligent  girls 
can  find  occupation  are  principally  in  the  mounting,  spot- 
ting and  finishing  of  photographs.  Here  they  quickly 
learn  the  ordinary  routine  of  the  work  at  salaries  begin- 
ning at,  say,  $5  a  week,  and  rising  to  two  or  three  times 
that  figure,  depending  upon  their  intelligence,  industry 
and  memory,  for  the  latter  element  is  a  desirable  one  in 
keeping  track  of  orders  without  reference  to  the  books. 
All  the  work  in  this  department  is  light,  varied  and  inter- 
esting. The  hours  in  my  establishment  are  from  9  A.  M.  to 
5  P.  M.,  with  sufficient  time  for  luncheon. 

Another  department  is  the  retouching  of  negatives. 
This  requires  some  technical  skill,  which  is  soon  acquired 
by  one  with  an  intelligent  brain  and  artistic  temperament. 
Some  of  the  best  retouchers  I  have  ever  had  have  been 
women  ;  but  here  the  first-named  peculiarity,  non-per- 
manency, is  frequently  an  obstacle.  At  the  school  of  the 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  231 

Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  and  also  at  some 
of  the  art  schools,  Cooper  Institute,  etc.,  excellent  instruc- 
tion has  been  given  in  the  retouching  of  negatives.  After 
a  sufficient  course  of  study,  from  six  weeks  to  three 
months,  a  term  in  the  practical  working  of  a  photographic 
establishment  brings  the  student  tcr  a  possible  living. 
Most  photographers  will  loan  rejected  negatives  for  prac- 
tice, if  the  negatives  are  safely  and  promptly  returned. 

The  criticisms  of  the  photographer  should  be  a  sure 
guide.  Much  artistic  taste  and  judgment  can  be  exer- 
cised in  the  work  on  a  negative,  and,  strange  to  say,  he  or 
she  who  can  modify  the  lines  of  a  negative  without  oblit- 
erating them,  and  who  can  do  a  little  with  intelligence 
and  judgment,  more  completely  fills  the  requirements  of  a 
photographer  than  the  one  who  expends  too  much  and 
almost  always  unprofitable  time  on  the  negative  in  mak- 
ing it  too  smooth  and,  as  we  express  it,  "  too  puddeny." 

Nearly  all  retouchers  now  work  by  the  piece  and  receive 
from  20  cents  to  $i,  depending  on  the  quality  and  size  of 
the  negative.  When  employed  by  the  week,  one  should 
receive  from  $8  to  $20. 

Then,  in  the  office  or  gallery  women  find  a  sphere  where 
they  are  unapproachable.  In  all  business  transactions 
where  the  amounts  involved  are  not  of  great  importance 
I  have  found  that  women  are  the  best  sellers.  Generally 
they  give  the  impression  of  absolute  honesty  of  purpose 
and  a  sympathetic  desire  to  forward  the  interest  of  their 
client  or  customer  ;  and,  say  what  you  will,  there  has 
always  been  on  the  part  of  the  great  mass  of  people — men 
more  than  women — a  certain  undefinable  hesitation — 
shall  I  call  it  timidity  ? — concerning  the  facing  of  a  camera  ; 
and,  on  general  terms,  women  in  the  gallery  succeed  in 
overcoming  this  peculiarity  and  securing  confidence, 
especially  of  children. 


232  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Now,  as  to  the  pursuit  of  photography  as  a  business  or 
profession.  Sex  has  nothing  to  do  with  it,  although  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  pursuit  that  is  particularly  adapted 
to  women,  but  must  be  prosecuted  with  the  same  enthusi- 
asm, fidelity,  earnestness  of  purpose  and  study  as  any 
other  line  of  work. 

It  is  not  learned  in  a  day,  and  photographers  are  not 
born,  any  more  than  are  artists  or  professional  men.  To 
attain  a  high  excellence  is  the  work  of  years,  embracing 
the  study  of  many  things.  There  is  no  royal  road  to  suc- 
cess. After  a  quarter  of  a  century  I  every  day  learn 
something  new,  and  each  day  seek  greater  excellence. 

Photography  is  not  strictly  mechanical.  It  calls  for 
the  best  and  most  varied  powers  of  the  best  endowed. 

I  was  once  asked  what  my  ideal  of  the  photographer 
was,  when  I  replied  :  "  The  best  photographer  is  one  who 
is  most  a  Chesterfield  in  his  manners,  a  Bacon  in  his  range 
of  information,  a  Rembrandt  in  his  art,  and  a  small  edi- 
tion of  Shakespeare  in  his  knowledge  of  human  nature,  all 
blended  with  the  genial  humour  of  Dickens."  As  sure  as 
the  chameleon  reflects  the  hue  of  its  surroundings,  so  is 
the  sitter  to  reflect  in  some  measure  the  mood  and  warm- 
ness  of  the  photographer  who  sits  him. 

Now,  while  there  is  all  this  in  favour  of  women  seeking 
occupation  in  photography,  there  is  one  thought  which  may 
not  occur  to  some,  and  that  is  the  limited  opportunities 
afforded.  One  photographic  gallery  supplies  a  large 
community,  and  but  few  employees  are  required  in  the 
ordinary  establishments  ;  that  is,  the  proportion  of  pho- 
tographic galleries  is  small  compared  with  any  other 
business.  I  employ  in  the  various  departments  at  the 
present  time  from  twelve  to  fifteen  women,  some  of 
whom  have  been  with  me  for  twenty  years. 

GEO.  G.  ROCKWOOD. 


PICTURES  AND  STATUES.  233 

AT  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR  IN  CHICAGO. 

PRIOR  to  the  World's  Fair  sculpture  as  a  branch  of 
artistic  labour  had  not  appealed  strongly  to  women  artists, 
but  now  clay-modelling  and  working  in  marble  are  in- 
creasing in  popularity  among  women.  - 

Seven  women  laboured  on  the  colossal  statues  of  the 
World's  Fair  buildings  and  grounds.  At  the  head  of 
these  stood  Miss  Julia  Bracken,  who  was  in  practical 
charge  of  the  women  sculptors  and  who  herself  modelled 
several  famous  statues.  The  large  figure  of"  Illinois  Wel- 
coming the  Nations  "  was  the  work  of  her  hands,  as  were 
also  the  flying  figures  which  adorned  the  corners  of  the 
Woman's  Building  and  the  "  Victory  "  of  the  Manufactures 
Building.  Since  the  Fair  Miss  Bracken  has  devoted  her 
time  chiefly  to  bust  work,  the  most  successful  being  the 
bust  of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  the  Hebrew  philanthropist. 
This  talented  sculptor  occupies  a  studio  in  Chicago. 

Mrs.  Low  W.  Moore,  another  of  the  "  working  seven," 
had  her  bust  of  John  R.  Bensley  accepted  by  the  National 
Sculpture  Society  of  New  York.  It  was  such  a  strong  piece 
of  work  that  the  judges  refused  to  believe  it  had  been 
fashioned  by  the  dainty  hand  of  a  woman. 


PHYSICAL  TRAINING. 

GYMNASTICS  FOR  WOMEN. 

One   Successful    Woman     in    This    Profession. — The   Royal 

Beauty  of  a  Statue  Reveals  to  Her  an  Excellent 

Field  of  Work. — A  Charming  Paper 

By  Genevieve  Stebbins. 

YEARS  ago,  when  a  very  young  girl,  I  received  my  first 
deep  impression  from  a  statue.  The  royal  beauty,  health 
and  strength,  the  deep,  indwelling  vitality  which  rayed 
forth  from  the  marble  form,  spoke  to  my  very  soul,  and 
seemed  a  message  from  Olympus.  A  message  may  be  a 
mandate  calling  one  to  her  life's  work. 

The  frozen  lips  seemed  to  whisper  :  "  Body  and  aeul 
are  one  in  reality,  for  body  becomes  the  soul's  reveal»«nt 
and  expression.  The  human  soul  is  continually  creative 
under  law.  It  takes  the  formless  and  shapes  it  to  express 
thought,  will,  love.  Go  forth  into  the  world,  learn  the 
great  laws  under  which  the  soul  must  work,  and  carry  to 
others  the  lessons  you  shall  learn." 

I  obeyed  ;  and  now  I  am  asked  to  write  down  for  those 
who  have  heard  a  similar  message  the  best  way  to  go  to 
work — that  is,  the  way  I  now  would  take,  profiting  by  my 
past  errors  and  avoiding  useless  or  dangerous  paths. 

First,  then,  a  good,  clear  idea  of  anatomy  must  be  ob- 
tained. The  skeleton  must  be  a  familiar  friend,  so  that 
the  X  ray  of  one's  imagination  can  be  turned  on  at  any 


PHYSICAL  TRAINING.  235 

moment,  and  photograph  to  one's  inner  eye  every  im- 
portant bone  in  the  body. 

Next,  you  must  know  how  the  skeleton  is  moved  and 
held  in  place,  so  that  knowledge  of  the  muscles  becomes 
necessary. 

Lastly,  every  important  organ  must  be  clear  to  your 
mind — the  way  in  which  it  works  and  where  it  should  be 
held. 

A  knowledge  of  medical  gymnastics,  of  Swedish  educa- 
tional gymnastics,  aesthetic  gymnastics,  fencing  and  danc- 
ing is  of  primary  importance  if  you  would  meet  a  varied 
demand,  while  a  thorough  understanding  of  apparatus 
work  and  gymnastic  games  is  often  exacted. 

But  in  these  days  of  specialists  you  can,  if  you  choose, 
select  only  one  form,  and,  by  being  thorough  in  that,  suc- 
ceed as  well  as  if  you  had  many  strings  to  your  bow. 
For  myself,  I  have  selected  medical  gymnastics,  Swedish 
educational  gymnastics  and  aesthetic  gymnastics,  the 
latter  of  which  I  have  arranged  after  many  years  of  study 
of  statues,  friezes  and  beautiful  national  dances.  Anat- 
omy and  physiology  must  be  the  foundation  of  all  forms. 

My  own  experience  has  proved  to  me  that  the  co-ordi- 
nation of  muscular  motion  and  slow  movement  is  more 
vital  and  life-giving  than  rapid  exercise.  Deep  breathing 
is  of  primary  importance,  and  no  exercise  which  inter- 
feres with  that  or  changes  the  heart  beat  too  violently  is 
wise.  Besides  practising  the  profession  of  physical  cul- 
ture, I  am  a  lecturer  and  reader.  I  have  always  had  to 
consider  the  body  as  a  whole  ;  and  I  could  not  afford  to 
acquire  a  great  knot  of  muscle  in  some  one  part  to  the 
over-balancing  of  my  vitality  and  strength.  Many  schools 
require  a  combination  of  elocution  and  physical  culture, 
and  I  would  advise  any  young  woman  with  a  predisposi- 
tion to  elocution  to  combine  the  two.  That  they  are  not 


236  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

incompatible  I  have  proved  in  my  own  case,  for  I  use  the 
two  about  equally.  Of  course,  if  you  choose  the  two, 
you  need  not  undertake  so  many  forms  of  physical  train- 
ing per  se.  It  has  been  a  necessity  to  my  nature  to  find 
artistic  expression  in  voice  as  well  as  in  body,  and  I  write 
this  paragraph  for  those  of  like  temperament. 

Women  should  not  practise  heavy  gymnastics.  Their 
feminine  structure  is  not  fitted  for  it,  and  they  gain 
nothing  to  compensate  for  the  risks  they  run.  It  is  my 
experience  that  a  woman  should  not  lift  her  weight  from 
the  floor.  The  Swedish  floor  walk,  the  aesthetic  fencing, 
dancing,  gymnastic  games,  bicycle  riding,  moving  and 
swimming  surely  furnish  enough  without  making  it  desir- 
able that  one  should  hang  by  her  heels,  leap  bars,  climb 
posts,  turn  summersaults,  etc.  Dumbbells,  clubs,  etc., 
are  rather  too  local  in  their  application,  but,  if  varied  with 
the  right  kind  of  leg  work,  are  not  injurious,  although  not 
necessary.  We  do  not  use  them  at  all  in  Swedish  and 
aesthetic  work. 

And  now  comes  the  great  question  of  where  to  learn 
your  profession. 

The  anatomy  and  physiology  can  be  studied  wherever 
you  are.  You  will  have  to  go  to  some  city,  no  doubt,  to 
acquire  gymnastic  proficiency.  New  York,  Boston  and 
New  Haven  have  the  only  schools  with  which  I  am 
personally  familiar,  although  no  doubt  good  ones  can  be 
found  in  any  large  city. 

In  Boston  the  Hemingway  Gymnasium,  Dr.  Sargent, 
for  varied  forms  and  the  Boston  Manual  Training  School 
for  Swedish  work  are  well  known. 

In  New  Haven  Dr.  Anderson,  of  Yale,  has  also  a  gym- 
nasium for  women. 

In  New  York  Dr.  Savage  has  a  gymnasium  for  varied 
forms  of  applied  gymnastics,  while  the  New  York  School 


PHYSICAL  TRAINING.  237 

of  Expression,  No.  318  West  Fifty-seventh  St.,  teaches 
medical  gymnastics,  Swedish  educational  gymnastics  and 
all  forms  of  aesthetic  gymnastics,  fencing  and  dancing 
included. 

A  good  teacher  can  earn  about  $100  a  month.  But 
unless  she  obtains  a  place  in  some  college  or  seminary  she 
will  have  to  be  a  specialist  in  a  number  of  schools  and 
take  private  classes  and  single  pupils  to  make  up  that 
amount. 

She  needs  some  lessons  in  voice  culture,  for  she  must 
be  able  to  give  her  commands  in  a  good,  clear  tone,  and 
often  she  must  lecture  to  small  audiences  so  as  to  present 
her  work  and  form  classes.  Some  lessons  in  primary 
elocution  are  therefore  valuable  to  her. 

The  personal  equation  counts  in  this  profession  strongly. 
A  vivid,  magnetic  presence  wins  work  where  a  retiring 
and  timid  one  would  fail.  This  need  not,  however,  dis- 
courage the  timid,  for  generally  the  work  itself,  being 
very  healthy,  creates  the  habit  of  deep  breathing  and  inde- 
pendence. A  bold,  aggressive  nature  people  always 
avoid. 

When  you  make  up  your  mind  write  to  some  good 
school  for  its  catalogue.  Generally  lists  of  boarding- 
places  and  prices  are  also  furnished  on  request.  Get  a 
letter  from  your  minister  and  write  to  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association  to  investigate  the  school  you  choose. 
Then  take  a  long  breath,  square  your  shoulders  and  set 
sail  for  the  voyage  of  life,  having  for  your  motto,  "  A 
sound  mind  in  a  sound  body."  Yours  in  comradeship, 

GENEVIEVE  STEBBINS. 


238  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


A  QUAINT    OCCUPATION. 

One  Woman's  Clever  Notion. — She  Finds  Patrons  Among  the 
Disciples  of  Art  and  Delsarte. 

ONE  of  the  best-known  characters  in  studio  and  bohe- 
mian  circles  of  New  York  is  Mrs.  Wright. 

Fifteen  years  ago  chance  threw  in  this  clever  woman's 
way  a  costly  shawl,  which  circumstances  forced  her  to 
turn  into  cash.  It  was  a  day  when  a  Paisley  or  an  India 
shawl  was  indispensable  to  the  well-bred  woman.  A 
dealer  promptly 'paid  her  a  handsome  price  for  her  treas- 
ure, and  assured  her  that  he  would  buy  all  of  that  quality 
that  she  could  bring. 

A  widow  with  a  growing  family,  sorely  pressed  for 
funds,  Mrs.  Wright  wisely  utilized  the  hint,  and  gradually 
found  herself  engaged  in  a  unique  and  paying  business, 
which  she  yet  pursues  with  enthusiasm,  despite  her  three- 
score and  ten  years. 

With  the  passing  of  the  shawl  as  a  toilet  requisite  the 
quaint  old  vender  turned  to  the  artists  for  purchasers. 
Artists  were  not  slow  to  recognise  the  beauty  and  utility 
of  shawls  for  studio  drapery,  wall  and  divan  decoration 
and  model  "  properties,"  and  more  than  one  painting 
exhibited  at  home  and  abroad  has  had  a  Mrs.  Wright 
shawl  in  back  or  fore  ground.  The  walls  of  a  famous 
studio  of  Gotham  are  hung  with  twenty-one  shawls 
bought  of  this  itinerant  merchant. 

Safe  to  assert  no  pawn  or  curio  shop  in  New  York 
escapes  the  vigilance  of  her  foxlike  eyes.  There  is 
scarcely  a  family  of  consequence  which  has  not  at  some 
time  stored  in  attic  or  warehouse  one  or  two  Paisley  or 
India  shawls.  The  vender  has  the  scent  of  the  grey- 


PHYSICAL  TRAINING.  239 

hound,  and  never  ceases  pursuit  until  any  given  shawl  is 
in  her  possession. 

Next  to  painters,  she  finds  her  steadiest  patrons  among 
Delsarte  disciples,  "  bachelor  maids,"  and  now  the  society 
women,  who  are  going  in  for  the  richly  coloured  shawls 
for  house  gowns.  A  double  shawl  is  sufficient  to  make  an 
entire  gown  for  a  large  woman.  The  design  in  the  centre 
of  most  shawls  answers  for  the  bodice.  When  a  single 
shawl  is  not  sufficiently  large,  sleeves  are  made  of  cash- 
mere. The  effect  is  wonderfully  rich  and  becoming. 

"  I  have  been  buying  shawls  of  Mrs.  Wright  for  many 
years,"  said  a  celebrated  public  reader.  "I  paid  her  for 
one  shawl  $150,  a  duplicate  of  which  I  saw  in  a  European 
collection  valued  at  $400.  How  she  can  sell  so  cheaply 
and  make  a  living  is  a  mystery." 

Perhaps  no  society  or  stage  beauty  has  been  more  per- 
sistently and  vainly  importuned  by  artists  for  a  sitting 
than  this  quaint  woman. 

"Thank  you.  I  appreciate  your  kindness,"  she  al- 
ways says ;  "  but  it's  impossible.  In  General  Jackson's 

time "  And  with  an  old-time  courtesy — she  is  the 

quintessence  of  politeness — the  tall,  angular  form  of  Mrs. 
Wright,  with  her  black  gown  that  smacks  of  Old  Hick- 
ory's day,  her  flaring  black  bonnet  and  bundle  of  shawls, 
disappears  before  the  artist  can  grasp  a  pencil. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS. 

ART  DESIGNING  A  TRADE. 

Hints  to  the  Ambitious. — The  Manufacturer  Cannot  Use 
Designs  Unless  Adapted  to  His  Processes. 

HUNDREDS  of  young  women  art  students  have  self- 
maintenance  in  view.  The  majority,  however,  soon 
recognise  the  fact  that  liberal  self-support  by  means  of 
art  is  possible  only  to  exceptionally  placed  or  exception- 
ally gifted  women.  The  others  naturally  turn  to  design- 
ing. 

It  is  not  an  unwise  choice,  because  in  this  day  success- 
ful manufacturers  depend  to  a  certain  degree  upon  art  for 
the  success  of  their  manufactures.  Whether  the  demand 
will  continue  to  be  greater  than  the  supply  depends  upon 
the  careful  adaptation  of  art  knowledge  and  effort  to  the 
requirements  of  the  manufacturer. 

There  are  two  classes  of  professional  designers — the 
general  designer  and  the  special  one.  The  career  of  the 
general  designer  is  the  one  most  eagerly  coveted  by  the 
woman  art  student,  because  it  is  much  more  varied  and 
interesting ;  but  it  is  at  the  same  time  the  one  requiring  a 
greater  amount  of  technical  knowledge  than  the  average 
student  can  acquire  in  a  short  course  of  from  two  to 
three  years'  study. 

The  general  designer,  to  be  thoroughly  accomplished 
and  capable,  must  have  mastered  the  whole  history  of 
decorative  and  applied  art  in  all  different  periods  and 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  241 

styles.  She  must  be  able  to  compose  decorative  designs 
correctly  and  successfully,  whether  for  a  carved-wood 
wainscot,  a  marble  frieze,  a  picture  frame  or  a  book  cover. 

If  she  chooses  to  confine  her  efforts  to  one  of  these 
things  she  becomes  a  specialist,  and  must  accept  the 
duties  of  the  special  designer. 

As  a  rule  a  woman's  art  education-  is  not  broad  enough 
to  fit  her  to  be  a  competent  general  designer ;  and,  in  fact, 
there  are  not  so  many  successful  women  specialists  as 
there  should  be.  They  have  not  yet  learned  to  choose 
a  certain  line  of  effort  and  pursue  exhaustive  practical  as 
well  as  historical  study  in  that  particular  direction. 

Perhaps  the  most  pervasive  idea  of  design  among  stu- 
dents is  that  of  combining  drawings  of  plants  and  flowers 
into  repeating  groups,  for  printing  upon  textiles  and  wall 
papers.  The  inclination  to  pursue  this  line  of  work  is 
natural,  because  students  are  constantly  surrounded  by 
wall  papers  and  cloths,  and  have  not  let  learned  to  note 
ornament  in  other  manufactured  things.  Then,  also, 
designs  printed  upon  wall  paper,  silk  and  chintzes  are 
more  literal,  more  like  pictures  or  coloured  drawings  than 
are  other  kinds  of  ornament.  They  appeal  to  the  inex- 
perienced student  as  illustrations  appeal  to  a  child. 

A  great  deal  of  artistic  ability  can  be  expressed  in  de- 
signs for  wall  coverings,  but  the  field  is  hardly  broad 
enough  to  admit  every  student  who  wishes  to  become  a 
designer.  There  are  countless  girl  students,  and  not  by 
any  means  an  equal  number  of  silk,  printed  cotton  or 
paper  mills. 

It  is  true  every  mill  must  employ  a  designer,  a  special- 
ist, whose  business  is  not  so  much  to  compose  designs  as 
to  adapt  them.  His  skill  in  this  makes  him  indispensable 
to  the  business,  and  commands  a  salary  of  from  $10  to  $20 
a  week.  He  is  often  wofully  lacking  in  the  sense  of  com- 


242  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

position — that  is,  in  the  appreciation  of  the  grace  and 
beauty  possible  to  composition — but  he  is  able  to  secure 
regular  employment  and  that  most  desirable  thing — a 
fixed  salary. 

This  is  the  point  I  wish  to  make:  That  even  without 
really  artistic  expression  a  designer  who  has  thoroughly 
mastered  the  technical  difficulties  of  his  particular  line  of 
manufacture — and  there  are  many  special  lines — can  se- 
cure regular  employment.  Technical  ability  alone  is 
worth  a  salary,  and  if  united  with  artistic  ability  it  is 
proportionately  valuable.  I  often  ask  myself  why  the 
work  of  a  special  designer  for  textiles  should  be  so  fre- 
quently lacking  in  grace  and  artistic  quality,  and  why  the 
girls  who  draw  and  compose  so  charmingly  should  not 
at  the  same  time  be  capable  of  suiting  their  work  to 
the  printing  machine.  Either  more  art  knowledge  and 
feeling  are  required  of  the  specialist  or  more  technical 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  student  before  the  best  ar- 
tistic results  come  to  the  public  or  pecuniary  reward  to  the 
designer. 

So  far,  while  there  has  been  a  great  advance  in  the 
qualities  of  our  so-called  art  manufactures,  it  seems  to 
have  profited  the  manufacturer  rather  than  the  designer; 
probably  for  the  reason  I  have  indicated — that  the  clever 
occasional  designer  has  not  acquired  routine  knowledge; 
has  not  fitted  the  work  to  the  machine. 

If  a  student  wishes  to  secure  salaried  employment  she 
must  take  a  leaf  out  of  the  specialist's  book ;  she  must  be 
able  not  only  to  fit  her  own  designs  to  machinery,  but 
those  of  others  as  well.  She  must  know  the  capacity  and 
variety  of  printing  machines;  she  must  learn  what  they 
cannot  as  well  as  what  they  can  do,  and  understand  the 
economic  advantages  of  certain  processes  over  others. 

All  this  is  certainly  within  the  capacity  of  woman  to 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  243 

acquire,  and  yet  I  know  of  no  instance  where  a  clever  and 
original  woman  designer  is  in  regular  employment  in  a 
silk  or  cotton  mill  producing  good  designs  and  at  the 
same  time  performing  what  may  be  called  the  drudgery 
of  the  profession.  Unfortunately,  the  drudgery  is  at 
present  indispensable  to  the  manufacturer. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  application  of  art  to 
new  methods  of  manufacture  is  comparatively  recent. 
Manufacture  itself  has  been  forced  to  meet  increased 
demands  of  commerce  and  has  rushed  forward,  constantly 
inventing  new  facilities,  leaving  behind  its  old-time  com- 
panionship with  art.  But  when  even  trade  and  commerce 
began  to  be  aware  of  a  loss  of  value  in  manufactures  by 
this  divorce  the  lagging  partner  was  hustled  forward  and 
confronted  with  new  problems  and  conditions.  The  mind 
and  hand  could  no  longer  work  leisurely  and  conjointly, 
the  thought  must  be  expressed  by  the  more  speedy 
machine.  It  is  this  double  demand  for  quantity  and 
cheapness  as  well  as  for  good  applied  art  which  has 
encouraged  a  sort  of  amateur  design,  possessing  many 
beautiful  qualities  which  as  yet — because  the  application 
of  them  is  not  yet  fully  mastered — cannot  command 
adequate  compensation. 

It  is  this  condition  which  must  be  met  by  the  woman 
proposing  to  make  a  profession  of  designing  for  textile 
manufacture. 

In  other  lines  of  design  technical  knowledge  is  not  so 
imperative.  That  is  to  say,  a  thorough  familiarity  with 
style,  based  upon  a  sensible  understanding  of  methods  of 
application  of  ornament  to  material,  will  go  further  than 
much  technical  knowledge  without  style. 

For  instance,  the  designer  of  silverware  or  metal  of  any 
kind  must  know  how  the  best  effect  can  be  produced  upon 
the  material,  but  his  designs  themselves  are  not  so  gov- 


244  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

erned  or  hampered  by  the  laws  of  repetition  and  space  as 
when  applied  to  textiles  or  wall  paper. 

Beautiful  and  graceful  lines  of  ornament  can  be  applied 
to  many  things  simply  as  lines  of  ornament  without 
special  study  as  to  methods  of  application,  and  a  facility 
in  this  kind  of  composition  may  be  widely  and  variously 
useful. 

I  must  still,  however,  reiterate  that  continuous  employ- 
ment and  salaried  ease  depend  upon  special  training. 

CANDACE  WHEELER. 

The  designer  who  is  employed  by  a  manufacturer  is  at 
present  usually  a  man,  although  women  are  now  invading 
the  profession.  He  is  also  a  very  busy  person.  The 
works  must  be  kept  going,  and  new  patterns  are  con- 
stantly in  demand.  If  the  manufacturer  is  to  maintain 
himself  against  the  competition  to  which  he  is  exposed,  if 
the  works  are  to  run  full  time  and  both  the  operatives 
and  the  proprietor  are  to  make  money,  the  patterns  of  the 
goods  produced  must  strike  the  popular  taste,  and  orders 
must  pour  into  the  office  of  the  concern  for  fresh  supplies. 

As  a  rule,  the  best  that  a  manufacturer  can  do,  after 
bringing  out  a  new  design,  is  to  gather  the  cream  of  the 
business  during  the  first  rush  of  orders  for  goods  of  that 
pattern.  Rivals  are  certain  to  watch  him  with  the  greatest 
interest  and  to  follow  him  in  every  successful  idea.  He 
must,  therefore,  when  he  has  once  hit  the  popular  fancy, 
obtain  the  largest  immediate  sale,  and  then,  while  not 
neglecting  future  orders  for  the  last  successful  pattern, 
press  on  toward  bringing  out  a  new  one. 

Designers,  men  or  women,  often  receive  especially  high 
salaries,  but  as  a  rule  they  are  paid  from  $15  to  $25  a 
week  when  regularly  employed.  There  is  no  trades  union 
among  designers,  and  they  do  not  therefore  always  obtain 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  245 

as  good  a  price  for  their  labour  as  engravers  in  print- 
goods  factories.  The  latter  are  paid  from  $24  to  $30  and 
$35  a  week.  But  a  really  good  designer,  whose  ingenuity 
actually  brings  business  to  the  factory,  is  certain  to 
receive  special  consideration  in  the  matter  of  salary. 


INDUSTRIAL   DESIGN. 

A  School  for    Women. —  Women  May  Readily  Learn  Practi- 
cal Designing,  and  They  Have  the  Hope  of  Good 
Salaries. 

ONE  of  the  most  pleasant  and  at  the  same  time  remu- 
nerative branches  of  woman's  work  is  designing  practically 
for  wall  papers,  oilcloths,  carpets,  book  covers,  silks  and 
all  fabrics  which  contain  a  pattern  printed  on  or  woven 
into  the  surface. 

Twenty  years  ago  there  was  no  woman  who  designed 
practically  for  any  manufacturing  purpose,  or  any  school 
in  which  was  taught  the  making  of  actual  working  designs. 
In  one  or  two  schools  there  were  taught  the  theory  and  prin- 
ciples of  design — mechanical  drawing,  theory  of  colour,  his- 
torical ornament,  conventionalization,  balance,  symmetry 
and  so  on  ;  but  none  taught  its  pupils  to  apply  these  prin- 
ciples to  the  making  of  workable  patterns  which  could  be 
carried  to  the  printing  drum,  the  Jacquard  loom  or  dobby 
machine  and  printed  or  woven  from,  just  as  they  were, 
without  being  redrawn  or  recoloured  by  a  practical  man. 

Even  to-day  there  is  only  one  practical  school — Mrs. 
Cory's  Original  School  of  Industrial  Art  for  Women,  No. 
159  West  Twenty-third  St.,  New  York  City — where  the 
making  of  actual  designs,  such  as  are  made  at  the  factories 


246  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

themselves,  correct  in  every  technical  detail,  can  be 
learned  and  the  training  of  professional  designers  accom- 
plished. In  a  number  of  schools  the  simpler  designs  for 
printed  goods,  such  as  wall  papers,  drapery,  silk  and  cot- 
ton prints,  are  taught  ;  and  one  or  two  in  Philadelphia 
and  Boston  teach  designing  for  a  few  grades  of  carpets. 
In  Mrs.  Cory's  school,  however,  it  is  possible  to  learn 
practical  designing  for  carpets  of  all  grades,  rugs,  raw 
silk  furniture  coverings,  table  linen,  Marseilles  quilts,  bro- 
cades, ribbons,  swivel  silks,  blankets,  bath  robes,  fancy 
borders  and  all  goods  having  a  pattern  woven  into  their 
surface  as  well  as  printed  upon  it. 

Twenty  years  ago  Mrs/Cory,  having  decided  to  become 
a  practical  designer  for  carpets,  discovered  by  her  own 
experience  the  impossibility  of  securing  the  needed 
instruction  in  any  school  existing  at  that  time,  in  even  the 
best  of  them  of  that  day,  Cooper  Union.  She  then  deter- 
mined to  establish  for  other  women  a  thoroughly  practical 
school  of  industrial  design,  to  be  maintained  exclusively 
as  such,  and  she  acted  on  this  resolution. 

The  school  has  grown  and  prospered,  and  is  now  the 
best-known  institution  of  practical  design  for  women  in 
the  world.  Pressure  has  been  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  founder,  many  times,  to  extend  the  curriculum  into 
lines  set  by  other  schools.  Applications  have  been  made 
for  cast  drawing,  architecture,  flower  painting,  life  work 
and  kindred  branches  of  art ;  but  Mrs.  Cory  has  said  : 
"  No  ;  these  branches  can  be  studied  in  hundreds  of 
schools  ;  in  my  school  there  shall  be  taught  nothing 
except  design,  pure  and  simple,  and  it  shall  be  taught  fully, 
technically,  practically  to  the  minutest  detail,  and  bet- 
ter than  anywhere  else  in  the  world."  To  this  determina- 
t  on  she  has  adhered  until  to-day  this  school  stands  fore- 
most as  the  best  and  only  one  in  which  women  can  learn 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  247 

to  design  practically  for  all  kinds  of  woven  and  printed 
fabrics. 

We  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  this  institution  is  ex- 
clusively a  school  of  practical  applied  design.  There  are 
no  side  issues,  no  extras.  Those  wishing  to  study  draw- 
ing from  casts,  architecture,  painting  in  water  colours  or 
oils,  painting  from  life,  can  be  well  taught  in  all  these 
branches  in  hundreds  of  good  schools  throughout  the 
United  States.  Those,  however,  wishing  to  study  design- 
ing practically  in  all  its  branches — for  the  most  intricate 
and  beautiful  fabrics  as  well  as  for  simpler  goods — 
should  come  here,  where  the  profession  is  taught  as  in  no 
other  school  in  the  world. 

We  do  not  keep  our  pupils  two  years  on  historical 
ornament,  for  that  is  not  necessary  ;  neither  do  we  teach 
cast  drawing,  for  that  also  is  not  necessary  for  a  designer 
of  fabrics,  wall  papers,  book  covers  and  the  like,  but  we 
do  teach,  thoroughly  and  well,  the  practicalities  and  tech- 
nicalities of  design  for  all  woven  goods. 

We  have  been  established  for  nineteen  years,  and  are 
known  to  the  manufacturing  world,  designing  for  manu- 
facturers abroad  as  well  as  for  those  at  home.  We  have 
the  confidence  of  these  men,  who  when  in  need  of  designs 
or  designers  come  to  us,  feeling  sure  we  can  supply  them 
with  thoroughly  workable  practical  designs  for  any  and 
all  purposes,  and  competent  workers  in  all  branches. 

All  good  training  in  drawing  is  a  help,  certainly,  and 
for  one  who  has  plenty  of  money  and  time  at  her  disposal 
a  long  course  of  several  years'  duration  will  do  no  harm, 
and  is  a  pleasant  thing  to  have  ;  but  the  pupils  who  come 
to  us,  as  a  rule,  feel  the  necessity  of  becoming  self-sup- 
porting at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  and  this  we  help 
them  to  do,  not  feeling  that  we  have  the  right  to  keep 
them  dragging  on,  at  a  more  or  less  heavy  expense,  for 


248  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

years,  when  they  can  learn  to  design  well  and  to  do  good 
work,  to  obtain  positions,  and  sell  their  designs  in  a  com- 
paratively short  space  of  time. 

We  feel  that  with  our  nineteen  years'  experience,  and 
by  putting  our  best  energies  and  strength  into  this  one 
exclusive  profession,  we  have  perfected  it  to  the  highest 
degree,  and  can  offer  the  best  possible  instruction  to  be 
obtained  in  practical  design. 

The  pupils  of  this  school  graduate  with  practical 
knowledge,  and  readily  obtain  positions  in  the  design- 
rooms  of  factories  at  good  salaries,  or  sell  to  manu- 
facturers designs  made  at  home,  receiving  full  payment 
for  the  same,  for  this  is  one  branch  of  woman's  work  in 
which  she  receives  the  same  payment  as  is  given  man  for 
the  same  grade  of  work.  Graduates  from  this  institution 
now  occupy  positions  in  a  variety  of  factories  in  all  parts 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  Some  young  women 
are  employed  in  the  carpet  factories  making  beautiful 
patterns  for  ingrain,  Wilton,  body  brussels,  tapestry,  vel- 
vet and  moquette  carpets.  Others  are  in  manufactories 
designing  for  Wilton  and  Smyrna  rugs.  Many  have  posi- 
tions in  Paterson,  N.  J.,  in  silk  mills,  where  they  are  pro- 
ducing designs  for  elegant  brocades,  fancy  '  sash  ribbons, 
labels,  silk  hangings  and  dress  silks.  Others  again  are 
working  on  silk  ginghams  and  swivel  silks,  one  young  wo- 
man having  invented  two  new  weaves  during  her  first 
year  in  the  design-room.  One  graduate  is  designing  for 
pyrography  and  carrying  out  her  ideas  in  leather.  Any 
number  are  working  in  the  pattern  departments  of  shops 
where  printed  goods,  wall  papers,  challies,  lawns,  ging- 
hams, oilcloths  and  prints  are  made,  while  others  have 
been  most  successful  in  the  creation  of  book  covers, 
Christmas  and  Easter  cards  and  other  dainty  novelties 
for  publishers. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  249 

Pupils  who  work  at  home  and  sell  their  work  to  the 
manufacturers  have  figured  in  all  the  branches  of  indus- 
trial design  mentioned  above  ;  and  very  many  more  have 
worked  in  stained  glass,  handkerchief  borders,  piano 
panels,  window-shade  borders,  endolithic  marbles  and 
other  fields  in  which  designs  are  used. 

Not  only  have  they  designed  for  American  manufac- 
turers, but  for  those  of  Europe  as  well.  Carpets  for  Leeds 
and  York,  England  ;  table  linen  and  towel  borders  for 
Dundee,  Scotland  ;  china  for  Carlsbad,  Austria,  and  em- 
broideries and  mattings  for  Japan — these  have  all  been 
made  upon  designs  conceived  and  sold  by  the  pupils  of 
this  school. 

A  large  number  of  graduates  have  become  teachers  of 
drawing  and  design  in  other  schools,  or  have  established 
institutions  of  their  own.  The  lowest  salary  ever  paid  to 
one  of  these  young  women  is  $8  a  week  for  a  beginner, 
which  sum  was  soon  raised  to  $12  and  then  to  $15  a  week. 
The  highest  salary  paid  is  $35  a  week  ;  but  some  of  the 
women  and  girls  who  work  at  home  make  even  more  than 
this.  A  fair  average  salary  is  $25  a  week.  The  hours 
are  not  long,  from  8:30  A.  M.  to  5  P.  M.,  with  an  hour  of 
respite  at  noon  and  a  half  holiday  on  Saturday,  as  a  rule, 
although  in  some  design-rooms  work  does  not  begin  until 
9  A.  M.  ;  and,  during  the  winter,  it  stops  as  soon  as  the 
light  has  grown  too  faint  to  see  well,  and  this  on  some 
days  is  at  4  p.  M. 

The  work  itself  is  delightful.  To  see  growing  under 
one's  hands  all  the  beautiful  ideas  conceived  by  a  fertile 
brain,  to  see  one  of  them  come  into  being  and  grow  into  a 
perfect  thing,  and  to  know  that  when  finished  it  will  be  of 
practical  use  and,  because  practical,  will  bring  its  fair 
value,  is  indeed  a  happiness. 

FLORENCE  ELIZABETH  CORY. 


250       WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ART  WORK  TO  MAKE  MONEY. 

The  Commercial  View  Essential. — A    Woman  Must  Be   Will- 
ing to  Illustrate  Dealers'  Catalogues  or  Anything  Else. 

IT  is  difficult  to  put  into  words  lessons  learned  from 
experience,  especially  difficult  when  they  are  intended  to 
help  those  who  are  about  to  tread  the  way  you  have  stum- 
bled along.  I  have  an  inherent  belief  that  every  woman 
has  a  right  to  do  the  work  she  feels  herself  capable  of  do- 
ing best,  provided  she  works  earnestly  and  never  forgets 
her  duty  to  herself. 

Business  tact  is  nothing  more  than  practical  knowledge 
of  the  commercial  side  of  one's  work.  It  is  knowledge 
only  to  be  acquired  by  contact  with  business  men  and  by 
striving  to  supply  their  wants  at  the  market  value.  Wo- 
man must  work  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  man.  She  has 
no  right  to  expect  work  unless  she  can  prove  her  capa- 
bility to  do  it  as  well  as  any  man. 

After  three  years'  delightful  study  in  New  York  in 
engraving  and  drawing,  I  found  myself  as  helpless  as  a 
child  so  far  as  practical  knowledge  of  my  art  was  con- 
cerned. I  stood  no  possible  chance  in  competition  with 
men  who  had  engraved  for  twenty  years.  Once  con- 
vinced of  this  fact,  I  began  to  question  how  they  learned 
the  art.  I  found  they  had  all  been  taught  in  the  school 
of  practical  experience.  They  had  served  apprenticeships 
in  engraving-rooms,  mastered  the  commercial  and  grown 
into  the  artistic  work  that  leads  the  world  to-day  in  fine 
engraving. 

Following  the  advice  of  an  accomplished  artist  in  charge 
of  the  engraving  department  of  a  leading  publication,  I 
set  about  to  learn  the  commercial  side  of  engraving  as  a 
man  would.  He  loaned  me  some  commercial  tools,  and 
encouraged  me  to  master  the  practical  part  of  my  profes- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  251 

sion,  without  which,  he  assured  me,  I  could  never  hope  to 
succeed.  Subsequently,  I  set  out  for  Providence,  R.  I., 
where  I  worked  for  two  years  in  a  large  engraving  and 
illustrating  house.  I  received  $9  a  week  the  first  year, 
and  $10  the  second  year.  Instead  of  being  employed  as 
I  had  dreamed  of  being,  to  engrave  from  paintings  of  the 
masters,  I  began  two  years  of  work,'  eight  hours  a  day, 
making  cuts  of  watch  chains  and  cuff  buttons. 

It  was  in  these  months  of  discouraging,  monotonous, 
wearing  work  that  I  gained  the  discipline  that  has  since 
been  to  me  of  such  inestimable  value.  I  had  never  known 
before  the  meaning  of  serious  work.  I  was  entirely  alone 
in  a  strange  city,  the  only  woman  at  the  workshop,  daily 
forced  to  compare  my  work  with  that  of  men  grown  gray 
in  the  profession.  It  was  constant  chagrin  to  find  that  my 
academic  training  was  of  no  practical  value  whatsoever. 
Those  two  years  at  Providence  were  worth  more  to  me 
than  five  years  of  study  without  practical  application.  It 
was  there  I  learned  the  cash  value  of  work,  the  necessity 
of  mastering  all  details  that  make  work  marketable. 
There  I  acquired  the  strength  that  confidence  imparts, 
the  training  in  endurance  that  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
success,  and  the  realisation  that  anything  is  artistic  if 
you  make  a  picture  of  it. 

At  the  end  of  two  years'  apprenticeship  I  returned  to 
New  York.  As  much  of  my  work  at  Providence  had  been 
on  jewelry  catalogues,  I  naturally  sought  jewelry  firms 
for  employment.  One  day  I  entered  a  jewelry  store  in 
Union  Square  and  asked  the  proprietor  to  let  me  illus- 
trate his  catalogue.  After  looking  at  proofs  of  my  work, 
and  asking  my  prices,  he  said  he  would  consider  the 
matter  for  a  few  days. 

In  the  interval  I  spent  the  most  anxious  moments  of 
my  life.  A  week  later  I  began  work  on  his  catalogue, 


252  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

which  kept  me  busy  a  whole  summer.  I  always  recall 
that  catalogue  with  mingled  pride  and  amusement,  my 
anxiety  over  the  work  and  the  fearful  sense  of  responsi- 
bility. Since  then  my  experience  has  broadened  widely. 
Through  that  jeweller  I  met  others  of  the  trade  for  whom 
I  have  handled  in  a  season  ten  times  the  amount  of  work 
covered  by  that  first  summer.  I  have  come  to  feel 
strongly  the  courtesy  with  which  I  have  always  been 
treated,  and  am  grateful  for  the  help  and  sympathy  I  have 
received  from  men,  all  of  which  has  tended  to  lighten 
labour. 

But  this  is  what  I  want  to  say,  and  to  say  strongly  : 
The  great  majority  of  men  and  women  who  are  really 
successful  learn  their  first  lessons  in  the  practical  part, 
then  grow.  Training  in  the  artistic  comes  later,  comes 
after  they  have  stood  the  test  of  the  routine  and  the 
monotony  of  the  practical.  Go  to  work  among  workers, 
not  among  dreamers. 

If  you  feel  you  have  talent  for  drawing  or  engraving  or 
designing,  go  where  that  work  is  done,  and  offer  a  year  of 
your  time  without  compensation.  Then,  if  you  stand  the 
test  of  that  year  of  strain  on  your  enthusiasm  and  strength, 
you  will  be  worth  something  to  your  employer.  You  can 
then  begin  to  study  along  higher  lines,  having  the  advan- 
tage of  practical  knowledge  to  build  upon. 

Go  bravely  to  your  eight  hours  a  day  ;  don't  stay  away 
for  a  headache.  It  is  discipline  that  will  strengthen  you 
for  all  time. 

There  is  an  unlimited  field  in  New  York  for  women  in 
all  artistic  lines,  particularly  in  engraving.  Nearly  every 
firm  of  note  issues  a  catalogue.  Business  men  have  learned 
that  a  picture  of  anything  they  have  for  sale,  that 
enchances  its  attractiveness,  pays  them  ;  consequently 
they  are  willing  to  pay  the  artist  who  makes  it. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  253 

Not  long  since,  the  manager  of  one  of  the  largest  corset 
firms  in  the  city  told  me  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  really 
good  artistic  sketches  of  corsets.  This  is  a  field  practi- 
cally unoccupied.  It  pays  well,  and  certainly  is  more 
satisfactory,  if  not  more  self-respecting,  than  to  harass 
suffering  publishers  with  impossible  illustrations  for  books. 

Another  unworked  field  is  the  retouching  of  photo- 
graphs. I  know  of  no  line  of  work  at  present  that  requires 
more  skill  or  pays  better.  These  are  but  two  of  many 
openings  that  I  have  encountered  in  my  business  life  that 
demand  skilled  talent  and  pay  well  for  the  same. 

Business  life  is  not  without  its  trials,  but  pleasant 
phases  are  not  wanting.  No  self-respecting  woman  need 
fear  or  dread  it.  Men  are  almost  invariably  courteous 
and  respectful,  kind  and  helpful.  The  occasional  excep- 
tion only  increases  appreciation  of  the  rule. 

Lois  KNIGHT. 


TASTE  IN  TRIMMING  HATS. 

If  You  Lack  That  You  Cannot  Learn  to  be  a  Milliner. — But 

if  a   Woman  Has  a  Good  Eye  for  Colour  Effects, 

She  Has  a  Good  Chance  of  Making  a  Living. 

To  all  those  who  think  of  taking  up  millinery  let  me 
say,  first  of  all,  you  must  have  taste  for  combining  colour 
and  materials. 

Every  woman  cannot  become  a  trimmer,  but  nearly  all 
can  be  good  milliners.  "Trimmers  are  born,  not  made," 
is  a  phrase  we  constantly  hear,  but  it  is  possible  with 
practice  to  become  a  trimmer,  though  the  style  may  not 
be  as  chic  as  that  of  a  French  artiste. 

The  work  is  at  all  times  fascinating,  though  during  the 
height  of  the  season  it  is  often  labourious,  as  the  hours  of 


254  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

work  cannot  well  be  regulated,  and  in  a  crowded  work- 
room it  is  extremely  uncomfortable. 

Many  girls  have  a  natural  taste  and  talent  for  the  art, 
having  for  years  made  all  their  own  hats  and  bon- 
nets ;  for  those  a  course  or  two  at  a  school  is  a  great 
benefit,  as  they  will  learn  the  simpler  ways  of  working 
and  save  much  time.  There  are  various  other  reasons 
for  women  taking  up  millinery  :  For  their  own  use,  thus 
having  more  at  less  cost,  and  we  all  know  the  cost  of 
materials  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  price  of  our  head- 
gear ;  as  a  fad,  because  others  do,  and,  again,  having  to 
earn  their  living,  girls  imagine  there  is  more  money  made 
and  less  time  spent  than  at  other  trades.  For  the  few 
there  is  much  money  ;  for  the  many,  less.  The  seasons 
are  short,  and  the  greater  number  are  employed  only 
seven  or  eight  months  during  the  year. 

When  a  girl  decides  that  she  will  take  up  millinery  as  a 
trade  or  a  pastime,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  decide  where 
she  will  study,  in  a  workroom  or  a  school.  The  former 
is  the  old-fashioned  way,  and  many  still  cling  to  it  as 
being  the  better.  As  to  schools,  there  are  schools  and 
schools,  and  each  student  must  decide  for  herself  which 
she  prefers.  Some  schools  charge  a  certain  amount, 
furnish  materials,  do  not  limit  the  time,  teach  what  a 
girl  asks  to  be  taught,  and  advertise  to  guarantee  places. 
The  latter  clause  is  the  most  attractive,  as  every  woman 
likes  to  find  a  place  ready  when  wanted. 

Then  there  are  schools  teaching  a  system — in  nearly 
every  case  the  Pratt  Institute  system,  though  changed 
somewhat  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  different 
schools  and  to  suit  the  ideas  of  each  individual  teacher. 
The  instructors  give  a  certain  number  of  lessons,  teach  a 
system  during  that  time  which  thoroughly  covers  the 
foundation  of  the  work,  and  charge  a  regular  price  for  the 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  255 

instruction.  The  system  generally  comprises  seventy-two 
lessons  of  two  hours  each,  and  the  length  of  time  taken 
depends  on  the  number  of  lessons  given  during  a  week, 
some  schools  giving  only  two,  some  four,  some  five.  The 
prices  of  tuition  also  vary,  some  schools  charging  as 
high  as  $30  for  the  entire  course,  others  as  low  as  $18. 

Each  pupil  furnishes  her  own  materials,  which  consist 
of  canton  flannel,  cheesecloth,  percaline  or  satine,  and 
tissue  paper  for  practice  work.  By  selecting  her  colour- 
ing carefully,  she  is  able  to  make  a  hat  or  bonnet 
decidedly  up  to  date.  For  the  work  on  good  materials  she 
purchases  what  she  prefers,  after  suggestions  from  the 
teacher,  and  what  her  purse  will  allow.  The  expense  of 
the  practice  materials  is  $3  or  $4,  and  usually  three  good 
hats  need  to  be  furnished  in  addition  to  the  mourning 
work.  The  course  embraces  wiring  ;  folds,  bindings  and 
facings  of  all  kinds  ;  bows  and  rosettes  ;  trimming ;  cov- 
ering plain  hats  ;  making  bonnets  and  small  hats  ;  black 
silk  and  crepe  work,  and  making  of  wire  and  buckram 
frames. 

After  a  girl  decides  where  she  is  to  study  she  must  go 
into  the  work  with  all  her  might — give  her  entire  time  to 
it  if  necessary,  read  what  she  may  see  in  the  papers,  visit 
the  different  millinery  showrooms  in  the  city,  using  her 
eyes  well ;  practise  out  of  class  hours  (as  in  no  other  way 
can  she  become  sure  of  herself),  make  frequent  notes  and 
ask  questions  whenever  in  doubt.  By  the  time  she 
finishes  the  first  course  she,  as  well  as  her  teacher,  can 
tell  whether  it  will  pay  to  continue,  and  it  is  always  well 
to  have  a  chat  with  the  teacher  on  the  question  of  con- 
tinuing or  not. 

When  a  girl  has  completed  the  course,  her  first  thought 
is  to  procure  a  place,  and  her  school  will  always  help 
whenever  possible.  Much  depends  on  a  girl's  personal 


256  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

appearance.  She  should  be  neatly  and  plainly  dressed, 
with  scrupulously  clean  hands  and  finger-nails,  a  pleasant 
face  and  greeting,  with  some  self-confidence.  It  is  per- 
fectly natural  to  shrink  when  facing  something  untried,  but 
it  must  not  be  too  apparent  when  applying  for  a  place. 

I  have  known  many  good  workers  who  would  have 
been  perfect  treasures  to  an  employer  had  the  latter 
only  known  it,  but  the  applicants  were  so  diffident  and 
distrustful  of  their  abilities  that  they  were  passed  over, 
and  those  taken  had  less  ability  but  more  confidence. 

In  nearly  every  case,  after  taking  an  entire  course,  the 
pupil  is  worth  $6  a  week,  and  many  are  worth  $8.  Some 
are  fortunate  in  getting  what  they  ask  for,  and  others 
have  to  be  content  with  less.  Whether  her  wages  are 
raised  as  time  passes  depends  a  great  deal  on  herself.  It 
will  often  pay  a  girl  to  work  a  month  for  nothing,  as  dur- 
ing that  time  she  can  gain  a  good  knowledge  of  work- 
room life,  and  confidence  in  her  own  ability  at  the  same 
time. 

It  is  not  always  necessary  to  enter  a  workroom,  as 
there  are  other  ways  of  using  her  trade.  If  she  is  not 
wholly  dependent  on  what  she  can  earn  and  has  time  to 
build  up  a  home  trade,  it  is  very  desirable,  especially  to 
one  living  out  of,  but  near,  a  city.  From  one  or  two 
friends,  who  will  recommend  her  to  others,  and  so  on,  a 
trade  will  grow.  It  is  more  business-like  to  have  cards 
printed  and  hat  tips  stamped,  and  the  extra  outlay  of 
money  will  pay  in  increased  patronage. 

If  possible,  the  milliner  should  do  the  shopping  for 
customers,  for  she  will  soon  learn  to  know  what  they  like 
and  can  afford,  and  can  broaden  her  own  ideas,  besides 
saving  them  time.  She  can  register  at  all  of  the  stores 
where  she  intends  to  shop,  and  they  will  give  her  a  dis- 
count, sometimes  6,  sometimes  10  per  cent.  If  she  has  a 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  257 

large  shopping  list  she  may  go  to  a  wholesale  house, 
where  she  can  purchase  in  small  quantities  everything  in 
the  millinery  line,  and  in  this  way  make  something  more 
than  a  discount. 

Another  way  is  to  go  out  by  the  day,  working  from  9 
o'clock  to  5.  Many  families  can  make  use  of  materials 
that  are  good,  though  having  been  used  before,  by  hiring 
a  milliner  to  do  the  work  in  their  homes,  thus  having  a 
greater  number  of  hats  at  less  cost,  and  trimmed  to  suit 
each  person's  fancy.  The  price  for  a  day's  work  will  vary 
from  $2  to  $4,  according  to  her  ability  and  quickness. 

Another  wishes  to  teach,  but  on  this  let  me  say,  first, 
she  should  not  think  of  money  at  all.  If  she  feels  that 
she  can  impart  to  others  in  a  plain,  simple  way  what  she 
understands  herself,  will  love  the  work  for  its  own  sake, 
and  not  for  the  money  it  brings,  then  go  into  it ;  other- 
wise, never  take  up  that  branch  of  the  work. 

In  a  teacher  the  chief  requisites  are  patience,  pleasant- 
ness of  manner  and  kindness  to  all.  Never  have  favour- 
ites. She  must  gain  the  pupils'  respect  during  the  first 
lessons,  and  then  she  can  depend  on  them  to  do  their 
work  to  please  her. 

A  good  way  of  beginning  this  part  of  the  work  is  in  the 
mission  schools,  which  pay  $1.56  a  lesson.  Private  classes 
are  also  practicable,  if  one  has  a  room  suitable  for  the 
purpose.  The  charge  for  a  lesson  is  usually  from  50  cents 
in  a  class  to  $i  for  a  private  lesson. 

No  one  must  think  that  after  spending  only  a  few 
months  in  studying  she  is  finished,  and  will  make  a  suc- 
cess in  the  first  venture.  Every  season  brings  something 
to  learn.  One  must  not  allow  herself  to  get  discouraged, 
but  work  on  steadily,  and  success  will  surely  come  to  her. 

BESSIE  ANNIE  LOSEY. 

See  also  "  Society  Women  in  Business." 


258  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 


WAGES  OF  MILLINERS. 

THREE  dollars  a  week  appears  to  be  the  lowest  price 
paid  anywhere  in  a  millinery  establishment  or  in  the  mil- 
linery branch  of  the  department  stores.  This  is  almost 
invariably  for  the  very  young  girls  of  the  "  office-boy  " 
and  "  cash-girl  "  type,  and  is  probably  as  much  as  girls  of 
the  same  age  earn  elsewhere. 

To  those  who  are  actually  milliners  of  different  degrees 
of  experience,  the  weekly  pay  varies  from  $5  and  $6  a 
week  to  about  $10  and  $12.  Most  of  the  girls  will  prob- 
ably never  rise  above  the  latter  amount  of  compensation, 
because  they  merely  want  to  earn  a  living  while  waiting 
for  the  almost  inevitable  marriage,  and  having  no  especial 
talent  for  colour  and  design. 

Really  good  milliners,  who  enter  with  all  their  heart 
into  the  enjoyment  of  creating  new  ideas  in  hats  and  who 
have  sterling  common-sense,  energy  of  management  and 
the  knack  of  the  artist,  may  reasonably  hope  in  time  to 
be  placed  in  charge  of  a  department  in  the  store,  or,  under 
the  direction  of  the  proprietor,  to  superintend  the  while 
operation  of  the  work  in  a  regular  establishment.  Such 
women  can  earn  excellent  salaries.  Beginning  with  from 
$12  to  $15  a  week,  they  may  hope  to  rise  to  $20,  $25  and 
even  to  $30  a  week,  as  forewomen. 

When  a  forewoman  becomes  worth  $25  or  $30  a  week 
the  proprietor  is  dangerously  near  the  point  of  losing  her. 
It  all  depends  on  the  forewoman  herself.  She  may 
become  a  proprietor  herself,  if  she  has  saved  enough 
money  to  begin  operations  on  her  own  account  and  has 
the  courage  to  undertake  them. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  259 


DRESSMAKING. 

Two  Ways  of  Learning  the   Trade. — Homespun,    Old-Time 

Methods  Replaced  To-day   by  Thoroughly  Scientific 

Training. — Much  Required  From  a  Dressmaker. 

SEWING  is  a  universal  feminine  accomplishment.  Any 
woman  may  learn  to  sew  and  to  fashion  simple  garments. 
Most  of  them  do. 

Among  the  poor,  thousands  turn  to  common  sewing  as 
the  easiest  thing  for  a  living,  not  realising  the  important 
business  fact  that  those  who  attempt  the  easiest  things 
always  meet  the  most  competition  and  have  to  submit  to 
the  lowest  wages.  Many,  being  without  ambition,  or  too 
tired  at  the  end  of  each  day's  work  to  improve  themselves 
in  their  calling,  never  fit  themselves  to  execute  the  higher 
classes  of  work,  which  pay  better. 

Almost  any  woman  may  be  taught  the  trade  of  dress- 
making, but  to  become  a  really  good  dressmaker  is  not  so 
simple  a  matter.  Ambition  to  advance,  a  natural  taste, 
the  instinct  for  decoration,  a  correct  eye  for  colour  and 
some  artistic  ability  must  be  inherent.  Intelligent  and 
thorough  cultivation  of  all  these  qualities  is  as  necessary 
to  a  training  as  a  special  knowledge  of  cutting,  fitting  and 
putting  together  materials. 

There  are  two  ways  of  learning  the  trade  of  dressmak- 
ing, which  is  the  higher  branch  of  the  art  of  the  seamstress. 
A  girl  may  go  into  a  shop  and  be  gradually  promoted 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  grade.  This  is  a  slow 
process,  at  the  end  of  which  she  may  know  as  much  as 
the  particular  dressmaker  under  whom  she  has  been  edu- 
cated, but  no  more.  Or  she  may  take  a  regular  course  of 
study  at  a  reputable  school.  There  are  charity  classes  for 
seamstresses  who  cannot  afford  to  pay  for  learning  to  sew, 


260  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

but  these  rarely  take  the  student  beyond  the  most  simple 
forms  of  garment-making. 

Before  entering  a  school  of  dressmaking,  it  is  necessary 
to  know  enough  about  sewing  to  be  able  to  cut  from  a 
pattern  and  make  an  unlined  dress.  To  one  able  to 
devote  her  whole  time  to  class  work,  the  course  may  be 
completed  in  one  school  year  of  nine  months.  The  stu- 
dent is  fully  instructed  in  the  underlying  principles  of  the 
trade,  and  is  required  to  make  her  own  dresses,  in  order 
to  apply  the  principles  she  has  learned.  As  soon  as  she 
is  proficient  enough  she  is  set  at  work  on  dresses  ordered 
from  outside  of  the  school.  A  course  in  freehand  draw- 
ing and  water  colour,  while  not  absolutely  necessary,  is 
highly  beneficial  to  any  one  who  aspires  to  make  a  name 
in  the  art  ;  in  some  schools  it  is  obligatory.  The  advan- 
tage of  being  able  to  express  ideas  with  pencil  and  brush 
is  easy  to  understand. 

All  schools  follow  about  the  same  line  of  instruction, 
and  the  course  at  Pratt  Institute,  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
may  be  taken  as  a  good  example  of  the  whole.  There 
the  course  is  as  follows  : 

FIRST    GRADE. 

Draughting  and  making  walking  skirt. 

Cutting,  fitting  and  making  lined  skirt  from  pattern. 

Study  of  colour,  form,  line  and  texture. 

SECOND    GRADE. 

Draughting  and  making  lined  waists. 

Matching  stripes  and  plaids. 

Study  of  artistic  and  hygienic  principles. 

THIRD    GRADE. 

Draughting  and  making  a  princess  and  an  evening  dress. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  261 

Study  of  contours  and  poise  of  the  body,  as  essential  to 
artistic  dress. 

Colour  and  texture  for  house  and  evening  dress. 

FOURTH    GRADE. 

Draughting,  cutting  and  making  jacket. 
Draughting  child's  dress  and  coat. 
Study  of  woollen  textiles. 

COSTUME   DESIGN. 

Practice  in  the  use  of  pencil  and  water  colour. 
Appearance  of  objects,  bows,  gowns  and  drapery. 
Outline  and  proportion  of  the  human  form. 
Study  of  historic  costumes,  designing  of  gowns. 

The  cost  of  tuition  at  Pratt  Institute  is  $75  for  the 
nine  months.  The  student  works  from  9  A.  M.  to  i  p.  M. 
and  from  2  to  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  every  day  except 
Saturday  and  Sunday.  Her  expenses,  besides  tuition, 
are  for  board  and  a  certain  amount  of  money  to  cover 
cost  of  the  materials  in  which  she  works.  Part  of  this 
expense  may  be  defrayed  by  making  garments  for 
others. 

After  a  girl  leaves  the  school  she  usually  endeavours 
to  find  a  position  in  a  first-class  dressmaking  establish- 
ment, and  these  are  quite  numerous  in  large  centres  of 
population.  It  is  not  always  possible  to  obtain  prompt 
employment  in  such  a  place  ;  but  if  it  is  effected  the  young 
dressmaker  has  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  work  in 
fine  materials  and  acquire  experience  in  designing  hand- 
some and  fashionable  gowns.  Many  girls  go  into  the 
department  stores,  others  find  employment  in  the  making 
and  alteration  of  dresses  in  private  families. 

The  salaries  paid  in  shops  are   not  large,   as  a  rule. 


262  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

A  good  skirt  woman  gets  from  $6  to  $12  a  week.  A 
waist-trimmer  receives  from  $9  upward.  Waists  call  for 
all  the  originality  and  ingenuity  of  which  a  dressmaker  is 
capable,  and  an  expert  in  this  branch  is  always  sure  of  a 
position. 

If  a  dressmaker  has  business  ability  she  may  venture  to 
open  an  establishment  of  her  own.  As  to  the  possible 
earnings  of  an  employing  dressmaker,  little  can  be  defi- 
nitely said.  In  a  small  town  the  prices  asked  for  the 
making  of  a  gown,  however  skilfully  the  work  be  done, 
must  always  be  lower  than  in  a  large  place.  At  the  same 
time,  the  expenses  for  rent,  board  and  help  will  also  be  less. 
Again,  success  in  any  line  is  largely  a  matter  of  personal 
qualities.  A  women  might  be  a  second  Worth  or  Redfern, 
and  yet  not  possess  the  ability  to  attract  and  retain  cus- 
tomers. Dressmaking  may  be  made  a  profitable  occupa- 
tion if  industry,  ability  and  honest  endeavour  to  please  and 
do  justice  to  each  individual  patron  are  taken  for  granted. 

The  woman  whose  good  points  are  emphasized  and 
whose  defects  are  hidden  by  her  clothes  owes  a  debt  to 
the  dressmaker  which  she  is  quick  to  perceive  and  which 
she  ought  to  be  willing  to  reward  liberally.  Regular  cus- 
tomers are  not  won  at  once,  and  the  first  year  or  two  of 
the  dressmaker's  career  may  not  yield  a  large  profit. 
After  that  she  may  hope  to  make  a  fair  living.  A  well- 
trained,  tactful,  industrious  woman  may  expect  to  make 
from  $1,000  a  year  upward,  depending  on  the  community 
in  which  she  lives,  and  the  number  of  patrons  to  whom 
she  gives  decided  satisfaction.  A  number  of  women  in 
Boston,  New  York,  Chicago  and  other  large  cities  have 
made  what  must  be  regarded  as  fortunes. 

Sff  also  "  Society  Women  in  Business." 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  263 

WAGES  OF  SEAMSTRESSES. 

WITH  seamstresses  and  dressmakers,  as  with  milliners, 
wages  vary  with  the  abilities  of  the  worker. 

In  the  far  West,  where  for  half  a  century  women  were 
far  fewer  than  men,  and  where  they  are  yet  numerically 
less  than  the  hardier  sex,  they  earn  slightly  better  pay 
than  in  the  more  crowded  East. 

In  the  East,  the  lowest  rate  of  weekly  pay  is  from  $4  to 
$6.  Experience  and  excellence  of  workmanship  bring 
rapid  promotion.  Probably  $12  to  $15  is  as  much  as  any 
worker  can  expect  who  has  not  yet  risen  distinctly  above 
the  mass  of  her  fellow-workwomen. 

Forewomen  in  stores  and  dressmaking  establishments 
may  expect  all  the  way  from  $10  to  $15,  $20  and  $30 
a  week.  There  are  cases  where  forewomen  earn  $40  a 
week.  But  what  should  prevent  a  woman  who  is  worth 
$40  a  week  from  setting  up  her  own  establishment  is  a 
mystery,  unless  it  be  her  delightful  freedom  from  the  cares 
and  ups  and  downs  of  business  enterprise. 


COMPETENT  PROOFREADERS. 

IN  regard  to  the  business  of  proofreading,  allow  me  to 
put  in  my  protest  against  the  assumption  that  proofread- 
ing is  a  trade  that  can  be  acquired  in  a  few  weeks  or 
months  by  any  one  who  has  a  fair  education.  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  assume  that  the  principal  duty  of  a  reader  is  the 
correction  of  errors  of  spelling  and  punctuation.  There 
are  scores  of  graduates  of  colleges — men  of  learning  and 
ability — who  have  unsuccessfully  tried  to  read  proof  in 
book-houses,  who  will  certify  to  the  correctness  of  my 
assertion  that  much  of  the  knowledge  required  of  a  good 


264  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

proofreader  is  not  taught  in  the  schools.  Neither  is  it 
laid  down  in  books,  and  it  can  be  acquired  only  by  practi- 
cal work  when  the  student  is  young  and  willing  to  do  the 
drudgery  of  literature. 

I  make,  however,  no  objection  to  the  employment  of 
women  as  proofreaders.  Our  house  has  women  readers 
and  is  well  pleased  with  their  work.  They  have  also  the 
approval  and  often  the  commendation  of  exacting  authors. 
They  are  successful  because  they  have  been  trained  as 
typesetters,  and  have  qualified  themselves  by  continued 
reading  and  study  after  work  hours. 

THEO.  L.  DE  VINNE. 


OUTLOOK  FOR  CERAMISTS. 

Success  Assured  to  Earnest  Workers. — Pottery  the  Most  Per- 
manent Medium  of  Expression. 

THE  most  important  and  impressive  characteristic 
presented  by  ceramics  is  its  absolute  permanence  of 
colour,  and  truly  if  an  artist  has  anything  worth  recording 
it  seems  of  great  importance  that  that  record  should  be 
made  in  as  permanent  a  way  as  possible.  Mineral  colour, 
fired  and  incorporated  with  the  glaze,  on  a  clay  body,  is 
the  one  unchanging  expression  of  colour.  Neither  mois- 
ture nor  heat  nor  cold  nor  the  sunlight  of  a  thousand 
years  will  serve  to  change  or  vary  in  the  minutest  degree 
that  which  fire  has  fixed. 

Artists  generally  are  inclined  to  feel  that  they  would  be 
handicapped  in  their  expression  through  this  medium. 
Perhaps  it  is  felt  that  clay  forms— merely  having  a  form, 
be  that  form  vase,  tile  or  plaque— are  something  of  a  bar- 
rier to  spontaneous  development.  But  on  the  other  hand 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  265 

these  forms  in  and  of  themselves  frequently  suggest  and 
invite  an  expression  or  treatment.  Then  again  some  of 
our  co-workers  have  hesitated  in  giving  their  sympathy 
because  this  branch  has  been  looked  upon  as  capable  of 
receiving  only  conventional  treatment.  On  the  contrary, 
the  porcelain  surface  is  most  elastic  in-  its  generous  invita- 
tion, both  to  artist  and  artisan,  to  the  face  worker  and  to 
the  conventionally  trained  hand. 

One  may  give  expression  to  the  freest  and  broadest 
thought,  perfectly  untramelled,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
may  demonstrate  to  a  nicety  of  perfection  his  skill  in 
technical  work,  purely  mechanical  work,  or,  indeed,  these 
classes  may  be  combined  with  great  satisfaction  in  one 
production. 

Surely  no  other  surface  offers  more  alluring  diversions 
than  this.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  porcelain  is  most  respon- 
sive to  sympathetic  treatment. 

In  viewing  this  art,  not  from  a  decorative  but  from  an 
artistic  point  of  view,  from  that  broader  field  which 
encourages  all  spontaneous  expression,  it  presents  great 
possibilities.  To  the  artisan  it  presents  a  field  full  of 
scientific  and  mechanical  problems  which  are  ever  open  to 
solution.  He  may  have  his  fullest  sway,  if  he  cares  to 
take  advantage  of  the  numerous  opportunities  in  the  fus- 
ing of  metals,  or  in  the  etching  of  forms  and  designs  with 
acids.  As  yet  these  conventional  suggestions  smack  of  the 
factory,  a  word  despised  by  the  American  decorator. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  American  decorator's  indi- 
vidual growth  will  be  assured  before  factories  take  posses- 
sion of  the  clays  of  our  country.  This  factory  influence 
is  what  we  are  trying  to  shake  off,  what  we  are  trying  to 
outgrow. 

What  we  need  is  good  workers,  students  well  trained  in 
our  best  art  schools.  The  china  painter  is  fast  learning 


266  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

that  his  position  is  measured  and  settled  by  his  actual 
knowledge  of  art  principles.  This  is  as  it  should  be. 
Among  those  who  frequent  the  ceramic  studios  of  New 
York  there  are  no  more  welcome  students  than  those  who 
come  from  the  league  and  from  the  schools  of  applied  arts, 
to  gain  a  technical  knowledge  which  they  wish  to  apply  in 
their  own  way.  Yearly  we  note  that  the  workers  who  are 
gaining  ground  are  those  who  are  properly  equipped, 
those  who  are  trained  to  see  broadly,  to  have  the  largest 
idea  of  the  unfolding  of  the  power  intrusted  to  them. 
We  need  students  of  strong  personality,  of  boldness  of 
expression,  of  spontaneous  enthusiasm.  These  will  leave 
an  impression  and  gain  the  respect  of  the  whole  world  for 
our  art. 

To  be  sure,  we  have  a  few  of  such  workers — too  few  as 
yet,  so  that  they  stand  out  pre-eminently  in  ceramic 
circles — who  prove  to  us  the  absolute  importance,  not  only 
of  general  art  education  and  general  attainment,  but 
added  to  these  a  happy  enthusiasm  born  of  love  for  the 
work. 

We  almost  make  a  plea  to  the  overcrowded  ranks  of 
other  professional  lines,  perhaps  to  those  who  ordinarily 
enter  illustrative  and  designing  fields,  and  show  our  hand 
by  dropping  a  bait  in  the  shape  of  commercial  opportunity. 

The  women  who  have  been  most  successful  in  ceramics 
from  a  financial  point  of  view  have  been  those  who  were 
primarily  teachers.  The  college-bred  girl,  with  the  all- 
round  knowledge  such  advantage  should  have  given  her, 
supplemented  by  a  course  in  art,  should  be  a  better  teacher 
and  produce  better  things  than  would  be  possible  to  her 
without  this  training.  The  girl  who  wishes  thoroughly  to 
equip  herself  for  ceramic  painting,  seeing  in  it  a  field  for 
earning  money,  should  first  choose  the  style  of  work  she 
wishes  to  take  up,  then  fit  herself  for  it.  Should  painting 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  267 

prove  more  attractive  than  purely  decorative  work,  the 
same  knowledge  of  perspective,  drawing  and  composition 
will  be  required  that  is  necessary  to  an  artist  who  uses 
oil  or  water  colour  as  a  means  of  expression.  This  is  best 
supplied  by  a  regular  course  in  an  art  institute.  If  deco- 
rative painting  be  the  choice,  a  course  in  designing  will  be 
admirable,  requiring  from  one  to  three  years,  during 
which  time  old  porcelains  may  be  made  a  special  outside 
course  of  reading. 

Intervals  during  the  regular  school  course  may  be  used 
in  either  case  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  variety  and 
quality  of  porcelains,  the  use  of  mineral  colours,  and  the 
art  of  fixing  these  colours  with  fire. 

For  a  girl  thus  equipped  and  possessing  the  enthusiasm 
for  her  chosen  profession  that  every  successful  teacher 
must  have,  I  bespeak  success.  If  you  are  not  possessed 
of  means  to  take  such  a  course,  you  will  need  to  make 
your  start  in  a  private  studio,  along  the  lines  of  advice 
given  later  on  to  the  teacher  who  must  in  a  short  time 
be  a  breadwinner. 

Even  under  these  conditions  it  is  possible  to  be  success- 
ful. You  will  be  happy  in  choosing  this  art,  that  appeals 
so  generally  to  the  naturally  refined  taste  of  the  American 
woman.  Her  wishes  are  to  be  mainly  considered,  for  it 
is  she  who  will  be  almost  exclusively  your  buyer  and  your 
student. 

Do  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  you  have  chosen  a 
profession  to  succeed  from  a  financial  point  of  view. 
Therefore  do  not  try  to  be  a  great  reformer,  but  rather 
try  to  be  helpful  to  all  who  come  to  you,  meeting  each 
individual  wish  and  putting  yourself  in  sympathy  with 
your  patron  and  your  student. 

The  American  woman  as  a  student  will  come  to  you 
for  knowledge  of  an  art  that  will  be  to  her  possibly  a 


268  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

pleasant  pastime,  possibly  a  means  of  satisfying  a  craving 
to  create  something  beautiful,  but  oftener  to  use  the 
knowledge  as  a  means  of  earning  money. 

The  first-named  class  of  students  are,  as  a  rule,  delight- 
ful. Possessing  tact,  you  will  assist  these  to  do  happily 
what  they  wish  to  do,  making  the  doing  of  it  a  delight. 
Failing  to  make  the  hours  employed  pleasant  ones,  and 
the  productions  satisfying  to  the  student,  you  have  not 
grasped  the  situation.  The  second  class  are  willing  to  be 
more  or  less  earnest  students,  and  to  them  theories  of 
art  and  its  mission,  as  well  as  exact  technical  knowledge, 
may  be  freely  and  satisfactorily  given.  These  students  are 
willing  to  study  art  for  art's  sake,  and  should  be  given  as 
much  thorough  training  as  the  time  at  individual  disposal 
will  permit. 

The  third  class,  those  who  are  endeavouring  in  as  short 
a  time  as  possible  to  enter  the  list  of  wage-earners,  require 
special  consideration.  As  a  rule,  the  utmost  you  can  do 
for  one  of  these  is  to  help  her  to  paint  a  considerable 
number  of  pieces  representing  a  variety  of  styles.  She 
will  probably  wish  to  copy  these  from  your  finished  pro- 
ductions in  order  to  get,  in  the  briefest  time,  the  necessary 
pieces  of  china  for  the  opening  or  the  freshening  of  her 
studio.  This  is  not,  most  likely,  what  you  would  prefer 
to  do,  and  perhaps  your  student  is  capable  of  much  better, 
capable  of  doing  good,  original  work  ;  yet  in  helping  her 
to  do  what  she  needs  you  find  your  opportunity  to 
encourage  her  to  go  to  nature  for  her  inspiration  and  to 
suggest  to  her  how  to  study  composition  and  designing. 
Give  her  the  best  you  can  of  what  she  needs  for  immedi- 
ate use,  and  plant  seeds  for  a  better  growth.  For  a  time 
the  most  this  teacher  can  do  for  her  pupils  is  to  have 
copies  made  of  what  she  has  painted  with  you.  Later 
she  can  give  them  an  idea  of  the  seeds  you  have  planted 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  269 

for  her,  and  so  make  not  only  your  studies  and  designs 
helpful,  but  your  teaching  far-reaching  and  productive  of 
much  good. 

Ceramic  art  has  a  right  to  live,  and  will  live,  will  keep 
records  of  thoughts  and  impressions,  records  historically. 
If  a  great  thought  is  to  live  at  all,'  it  is  meet  that  it 
should  be  carried  out  in  a  permanent  form.  We  have  no 
more  permanent  expression,  either  in  the  world  of  art  or 
of  letters.  Why  not,  then,  encourage  it,  develop  it,  pro- 
gress with  it,  for  as  Goethe  has  said,  "  Whatever  is  good 
as  God's  will  is  permanent." 

F.  VANCE  PHILLIPS. 


BOOKBINDING  AS  A  CRAFT. 

The  Woman  Who  Wants  to  Learn  May  Here  Find  What  to 

Do. — No  Success  Without  Patience,  Exactness  and 

an  Eye  for  Design. 

IT  has  been  asked  whether  bookbinding  has  proved  an 
occupation  suitable  for  women,  and  whether  it  pays.  The 
best  answer  to  these  questions  is  an  explanation  of  the 
conditions  of  the  work. 

Bookbinding  is  not  to  be  learned  in  less  than  six  months, 
and  this  means  regular  work,  six  days  a  week,  five  hours 
a  day.  Even  after  six  months'  steady  application  no 
teacher  would  be  willing  to  say  that  he  could  turn  out  a 
finished  and  competent  workwoman  ready  to  take  her 
place  in  the  competition  of  the  trade.  At  the  end  of  six 
months,  the  teacher  has  simply  done  his  part  ;  the  rest 
lies  with  the  pupil  alone. 

After  preliminary  training,  the  chief  need  on  the  part  of 
the  pupil  is  perfection  of  technique,  which  in  such  a  craft 


270  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

is  to  be  attained  only  by  constant  and  uninterrupted  repe- 
tition of  processes.  This  alone  disposes  of  a  large  class 
of  women,  who  either  will  not  or  cannot  give  steady  work 
or  time — women  who  do  not  care  for  any  work  which 
exacts  steady  application  at  the  sacrifice  of  amusements 
or  other  interests. 

Bookbinding  is  wholly  unsuited  to  women  seeking  a 
light  accomplishment  to  be  picked  up  or  dropped  at  will. 
The  outfit  for  such  work  as  a  woman  would  do  in  a  small 
shop  where  no  steam  or  patent  machines  are  used  and 
all  processes  are  done  by  hand,  in  short,  what  the  trade 
calls  a  "  garret-binder,"  costs  $150.  The  outfit  is  a  much 
less  serious  matter  in  New  York  than  the  cost  of  rent. 
A  good-sized  room,  with  plenty  of  light  (not  overhead 
studio  light),  and  a  floor  which  may  be  treated  with 
utmost  disrespect,  are  necessary  for  a  workshop.  If  a 
woman  asked  my  advice  I  would  suggest  making  a  com- 
bination, if  possible,  with  some  other  binder,  and  thus 
reduce  the  cost  of  rent,  which  is  the  great  bugbear  of  any 
working  woman  in  a  city  like  New  York.  For  this  reason 
such  work  seems  to  be  especially  suited  to  a  woman  who 
already  has  a  home  provided  for  her  ;  who  has  a  father 
who  is,  perhaps,  able  to  help  support  her  while  she  is  pre- 
paring herself  for  her  future  work. 

Bookbinding  is  not  promising  to  poor  women,  or  to 
women  who  have  an  income  but  who  expect  to  reap  some 
return  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  work. 

The  running  expenses  of  leather,  paper,  thread,  glue, 
the  books  to  be  bound  and  other  items  are  not  small. 
Compared  with  the  working  material  of  the  writer  it  is 
large,  while  compared  with  that  of  the  painter  it  is  mod- 
erate. The  cost  of  the  requisite  six  months'  tuition  in 
this  country  is  about  $450  ;  in  England  it  can  be  learned 
for  possibly  half  that  sum,  but  with  the  extra  expense  of 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS,  271 

going  abroad  it  amounts  to  about  the  same  thing.  The 
experience  of  living  in  such  a  place  as  London,  however, 
is  so  stimulating  to  all  one's  working  powers,  the  atmos- 
phere is  so  suggestive,  so  serious,  that  when  it  is  possible 
I  strongly  advise  study  abroad.  I  believe  the  art  cannot 
be  learned  there  in  less  than  a  year. 

Granting  that  a  woman  begins  with  a  real  vocation,  a 
love  for  the  work  and  a  determination  to  learn,  the  main 
quality  needed  is  patience  ;  the  patience  which  comes 
with  the  temperament  that  loves  "  pottering " ;  the 
patience  which  loves  fine  and  delicate  work,  that  causes 
absolute  exactness  ;  the  patience  that  is  willing  to  go  over 
and  over  one  operation  until  the  necessary  exactness  is 
secured.  Exactitude  of  mind  is  not  a  common  feminine 
attribute.  Exactness  is  usually  the  last  thing  she  masters 
by  training,  and  its  possession  is  absolutely  imperative  to 
the  good  bookbinder.  It  is  a  quality  acquired  by  habitu- 
ating one's  self  from  the  start  to  observe  the  difference 
between  an  eighth  and  a  quarter  of  an  inch,  and  to  regard 
the  same  as  a  matter  of  vital  importance.  Once  this  is 
grasped,  it  seems  to  me,  it  is  no  more  difficult  for  a 
woman  to  succeed  than  for  a  man.  There  are  certain  men 
and  women  to  whom  exactness  is  an  impossibility.  To 
the  woman  so  constituted  bookbinding  is  unsuited. 

With  correctness  of  eye,  exactness  of  habit,  patience 
and  a  certain  amount  of  feeling  for  colour,  harmony  and 
design,  and  a  real  love  for  the  work,  I  should  say,  with- 
out hesitation,  that  a  woman  can  go  far  in  this  line  and 
make  a  decided  success. 

To  sum  up,  bookbinding  is  suited  either  as  an  accom- 
plishment or  a  money-making  occupation  to  only  a  small 
class  of  women.  To  the  minority  it  is  eminently  suited. 
To  the  woman  tired  of  "  gadding,"  and  whose  circum- 
stances allow  her  to  give  a  certain  number  of  hours  daily 


272  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

to  some  serious  occupation,  and  who  has  enough  money 
to  spend  without  needing  any  return,  and  who  loves 
books  ;  to  such  a  woman  I  would  say  :  "  Bind  books,  and 
you  will  find  the  utmost  delight  in  clothing,  to  suit  your- 
self, your  favourite  authors." 

To  the  woman  who  wishes  to  earn  a  good  living  and 
who  can  afford  the  training  and  wait  for  success,  let  me 
add  :  "  Go  ahead,  and  success  will  come." 

EVELYN  HUNTER  NORDHOFF. 


THE  MAKING  OF   BOOK  COVERS. 

SINCE  the  foregoing  was  written  Miss  NordhofFs  death 
has  been  announced.  The  work  so  well  begun  by  her 
has,  in  accordance  with  her  last  wishes,  been  continued 
by  two  of  her  pupils,  Miss  M.  Pratt  and  Miss  Florence 
Foote.  The  designing  of  book  covers  for  the  trade, 
which  is  a  branch  of  the  bookmaking  art,  offers  a  field  of 
work  for  which  women  seem  well  adapted,  but  for  which, 
as  yet,  the  proper  training  is  difficult  to  obtain.  While 
schools  of  design  offer  courses  of  general  study,  none 
devote  attention  especially  to  book  covers,  and,  according 
to  the  publishers  and  bookbinders,  the  present  courses 
are  not  satisfactory. 

Four  women,  at  least,  have  made  marked  successes  in 
this  field,  however.  Mrs.  Whitman,  of  Boston  ;  Miss 
Margaret  Armstrong,  Miss  E.  Redington  Lee  and  Miss 
Amy  Richards,  of  New  York,  have  designed  many  of  the 
best  book  covers  used  by  such  houses  as  Houghton  & 
Mifflin,  Harper's,  Scribner's  and  Dodd  &  Mead.  These 
young  women  attribute  their  success  mainly  to  their 
thorough  training  in  drawing  and  their  practical  know- 
ledge of  the  requirements  of  bookbinding.  The  latter  is 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  273 

by  no  means  easy  to  ascertain.  The  school  established 
by  Miss  Nordhoff  is  the  only  one  in  the  country  wherein 
a  woman  can  learn  anything  more  of  bookbinding  than 
the  simple  stitching  together  of  leaves.  The  Book- 
binders' Union  excludes  women  from  the  higher  branches 
of  the  trade. 

The  prices  paid  for  book-cover  designs  average  $15. 
The  demand  is  hardly  large  enough  yet  to  encourage 
many  women  to  look  to  it  exclusively  for  a  means  of  live- 
lihood, but,  supplemented  by  designing  of  posters,  adver- 
tisements, magazine  covers  and  borders,  a  very  fair 
amount  might  be  realised  annually. 

For  other  information  in  the  field  of  Design  see  "  Pictures 
and  Statues." 


SMALL    MANUFACTURES. 

Need,  Accident  and  Ingenuity  Lead  Some  Women  into  the 
Founding  of  Small  Industries. 

FEW  women  have  as  yet  built  up  manufacturing  enter- 
prises of  their  own.  Quite  a  number  have  fallen  heir  to 
established  industries  and  conducted  them  with  success  ; 
but  the  women  who  start  factories  of  their  own  are  not 
numerous.  There  are  a  few,  however,  who  have  done  so, 
having  stumbled  into  the  occupation  by  accident,  or  hav- 
ing been  led  into  it  by  need  or  their  own  ingenious  inven- 
tions. 

Some  of  the  small  industries  scarcely  rise  above  the 
level  of  drudgery  pure  and  simple.  Softsoap-making  was 
once  quite  universal.  The  commodity  was  in  extended 
use,  and  many  a  farmer's  wife  added  to  her  pin-money  by 
selling  a  barrel  of  softsoap  in  some  neighbouring  city 


274  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

every  year,  in  the  "  good  old  times."  In  modern  days  a 
few  women  have  undertaken  to  make  fine  soaps  for 
fastidious  families.  The  process  is  not  difficult,  and 
affords  a  fair  remuneration. 

Basket-weaving  is  now  left  generally  to  rural  workers  ; 
but  there  are  a  number  of  factories  in  which  women  can 
earn  about  $5  a  week,  and  some  of  them  are  conducted 
by  women. 

Glove  dyeing  is  a  good  business  and  is  followed  by 
many  women.  One  case  is  known  of  a  poor  widow,  who 
was  forced  by  necessity  to  dye  her  dress  black  after  her 
husband's  death,  and  who  did  it  so  well  that  she  soon 
found  herself  profitably  employed  in  dying  dresses  for 
others.  She  supported  herself  for  years  from  this  indus- 
try, employing  such  assistants  as  were  required. 

The  desire  of  many  families  to  buy  only  the  purest  of 
candies,  and  the  fact  that  home-made  confectionery  is 
usually  more  agreeable  to  the  palate,  has  opened  the  way 
to  women  in  almost  every  city  to  add  to  their  earnings 
by  supplying  caramels,  chocolates  and  other  wholesome 
dainties.  In  these  instances  little  is  required  to  convert 
the  business  into  a  regular  industry.  The  sale  is  usually 
best  during  the  holiday  season. 

Mme.  Demorest  made  a  fortune  in  the  manufacture  of 
patterns.  It  is  true  that  she  had  a  newspaper  also,  but 
that  publication  was  merely  an  adjunct  to  her  pattern  in- 
dustry, which  was  built  up  to  enormous  proportions. 

The  Patent  Office  at  Washington  is  full  of  applications 
for  patents  by  women.  Games,  notions,  baby  carriages, 
sewing  implements,  tools  and  a  thousand  and  one  small 
things  are  patented  by  women.  In  many  cases  the  manu- 
facture is  carried  on  by  them  on  a  small  scale.  A  smart 
idea  can  be  sold  at  all  times  to  those  who  already  manu- 
facture kindred  commodities  ;  and  more  than  one  woman 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  275 

has  assured  her  bread  and  butter  for  life  by  such  a  sale. 
But  there  is  sometimes  more  money  to  be  made  by 
manufacturing  for  one's  self.  This  must  always  be  a 
matter  of  judgment,  however.  Capital,  a  shop,  and  per- 
haps a  partner,  are  necessary,  if  a  woman  intends  to 
manufacture  on  her  own  account. 

Umbrella-making  was  at  one  time  a  suitable  field  for 
women.  In  these  latter  days  women  appear  in  the  indus- 
try mainly  as  employees,  and  earn  from  about  $6  to  $14  a 
week. 

Many  women  earn  a  living  by  making  knick-knacks 
for  holiday  presents,  illustrated  blotting  pads,  etc. 


FACTORY  GIRLS. 

They  Comprise  Fully  One-Fourth  of  the  Women  Employed. — 
The  Wages  They  Can  Earn. — Physical  Strength  Re- 
quired in  Most  Industries. 

ELSEWHERE  in  this  publication,  under  the  title  of  "  Grow- 
ing Fields  of  Work,"  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
increasing  percentage  of  women  employed  in  business  and 
clerical  pursuits,  and  the  relative  decrease  of  the  percent- 
age of  those  engaged  in  the  more  labourious  occupations. 

It  remains  true,  however,  that,  so  far  as  the  actual  num- 
ber of  women  at  work  is  concerned,  manufactures  and 
agriculture  are  the  support  of  the  majority  of  them.  Of 
the  more  than  4,000,000  of  women  who  have  taken  their 
places  in  the  ranks  of  labour,  about  650,000  belong  to  the 
proprietor  and  professional  classes  ;  about  250,000  to  the 
clerical  classes  (round  numbers  are  used  for  convenience), 
something  over  1,200,000  are  employed  in  the  manufac- 
tures, and  close  to  2,000,000  in  domestic  service  and  agri- 
culture. 


276  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

The  factories  of  the  United  States  performed  an  im- 
mense public  service  during  their  early  years  in  giving 
employment  to  a  vast  number  of  girls  from  the  farms  of 
the  Eastern  States,  whose  labour  until  that  time  had  been 
of  no  particular  money  value  to  themselves. 

Down  to  the  present  day,  in  spite  of  the  continual  influx 
of  foreign  labour,  the  factories  perform  the  same  useful 
service  in  giving  employment  to  vast  numbers  of  native 
girls  and  women  of  all  ages,  from  children  of  ten  to 
women  of  mature  years.  The  factory  has  become,  in 
fact,  an  important  competitor  now,  in  all  the  States  where 
industries  thrive,  with  other  forms  of  gainful  occupation 
for  women.  The  hours  of  labour,  long  as  they  are,  are 
not  so  protracted  as  in  domestic  service,  and  the  evenings 
are  free.  The  factories  are  available  for  any  woman  who 
must  engage  in  work  and  who  does  not  enjoy  the  educa- 
tion and  influence  which  would  enable  her  to  take  up 
other  occupations.  Sometimes  it  is  the  only  employment 
in  the  vicinity. 

Hours  and  wages  in  factories  are  fixed  largely  by  con- 
ferences between  the  trades  unions  and  the  employers. 
Ultimately,  the  rate  of  wages  is  fixed  by  the  condition  of 
the  markets  for  the  various  goods.  Simple  forms  of  work, 
as  in  many  of  the  operations  of  cotton  and  woollen  facto- 
ries, receive  a  smaller  compensation  than  more  delicate 
and  elaborate  processes.  It  is  intended  that  all  who 
enter  the  factories  shall  at  least  make  a  living,  if  they  are 
able  to  perform  the  work  ;  but  much  depends  on  the 
capacity  of  the  worker  herself.  As  a  rule,  a  good  degree 
of  physical  strength  is  required  from  the  factory  worker. 

It  would  be  impracticable  and  scarcely  useful  in  the 
limits  of  this  paper  to  give  a  complete  idea  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  factories  for  wage-earning  in  every  detail. 
Exact  and  complete  .information  can  only  be  obtained  in 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  277 

Government  reports.  But  some  idea  of  the  matter  can  be 
given,  and  this  will  be  sufficient  for  all  practical  purposes. 
In  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  that  women  earn  less  in 
the  factories  than  men,  partly  due  to  the  difference  in 
physical  strength  of  the  two  sexes,  but  also  in  part  due  to 
the  regulations  of  the  trades  unions.,  A  woman  who 
wishes  to  improve  herself  in  her  calling  may,  however, 
advance  steadily  until  her  abilities  result  in  promotion  to 
the  more  important  forms  of  the  work,  and  in  these  she 
will  receive  better  pay.  If  she  rises  to  be  a  forewoman 
her  pay  will  be  distinctly  better.  In  a  few  of  the  leading 
industries  in  which  women  are  employed  to  a  certain  extent 
the  pay  is  about  as  follows  : 

Awnings,  tents  and  flags — Cutters,  from  $4  a  week  to 
$7.50.  Forewomen,  $11  or  $12. 

Bagmaking,  cotton — The  range  of  wages  is  from  about 
$4  a  week  to  $6.50.  Forewomen  get  about  $10. 

Boots  and  shoes — This  trade  has  numerous  subdivisions, 
the  work  in  a  shoe  factory  being  specialized  to  the  last 
degree.  Children  get  from  $2  to  $4.50  a  week.  The 
stitching  of  uppers  requires  good  workmanship,  and  pays 
from  $4.50  to  $12,  and  even  as  high  as  $15  and  $16  a  week. 
Eyeletters  range  from  $9  to  $14  a  week,  as  a  rule.  Fore- 
women get  from  $15  to  $24  a  week.  The  wages  vary 
with  age,  experience  and  the  character  of  the  work.  The 
compensation  varies  somewhat  accordingly  as  the  worker 
is  paid  by  days  of  labour  or  by  the  piece. 

Boxes,  paper — This  is  a  calling  for  women  especially, 
and  the  compensation  ranges  from  about  $5  to  $13  weekly. 

Cotton  goods — This  is  another  industry  in  which  the 
work  is  highly  specialized.  Spinners,  women,  receive  from 
$3  to  $6  a  week.  Weavers  earn  anywhere  from  $3.75  a 
week  to  $8,  and  often  as  high  as  $12.  The  manufacture 
of  some  classes  of  goods  pays  the  worker  better  than 


278  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

others,  depending  on  the  simplicity  of  the  operations  and 
the  state  of  the  markets.  Women  carders  earn  from  $4.50 
to  $11  a  week. 

Compositors — The  printing  trades  give  employment  to 
many  women,  especially  in  the  smaller  cities.  Few  earn 
less  than  $6  a  week,  and  many  as  high  as  $12  and  $14. 
Women  who  have  learned  to  operate  a  typesetting  appar- 
atus, especially  a  Mergenthaler  lineotype  machine,  often 
receive  as  high  as  $15,  $17.50  and  $19  a  week.  Fore- 
women are  specially  paid. 

Silk  industry — Weavers  earn  a  great  variety  of  wages, 
ranging  all  the  way  from  $3.20  a  week  to  $10,  $12.50  and 
$15.  Much  depends  on  the  ability  of  the  worker  and  the 
kind  of  goods  manufactured.  The  average  range  of  earn- 
ings is  from  $4  to  $7.50. 

Woollen  manufacturing — Women  carders  get  from  $3 
to  $5.75  a  week.  Spinners,  $3.60  to  $6.50.  Weavers  are 
paid  from  $3.25  to  $8,  and  sometimes  as  high  as$n  a 
week.  Finishers,  from  $4  to  $9. 

The  foregoing  are  all  great  staple  lines  of  industry.  In 
the  large  cities  many  special  forms  of  industry,  such  as 
the  manufacture  of  feathers,  confectionery,  fancy  leather 
goods,  jewelry,  blank  books,  etc.,  are  carried  on,  in  which 
the  woman  worker  finds  better  compensation  than  in  the 
greater  factories  of  staples. 

The  majority  of  women  employed  in  American  factories 
are  single.  Not  more  than  n  per  cent,  of  them  are  mar- 
ried. As  a  general  rule,  girls  leave  the  factory  after  mar- 
riage. 

Counting  all  the  branches  of  work  in  different  indus- 
tries as  separate  occupations,  women  are  now  employed  in 
about  two  thousand  of  them.  For  many  occupations  they 
are  better  fitted  than  men,  and  in  a  few  they  receive 
better  pay. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  279 

FAIRY  CREATIONS  IN  LACE. 

Exquisite    Work  Done  by  the    Women  of  Colonial  Times. — 
Stitches  That "  Could  Not  Be  Seen."— Effect  of  Over- 
straining the  Eyes  in  Doing  Needlework. 

IN  a  quaint  homestead  at  Port  Washington  belonging  to 
one  of  the  old  and  prominent  families  of  Long  Island — 
the  Mitchell  family— is  a  large  and  varied  collection  of 
household  and  personal  belongings  ^dating  back  to  Colo- 
nial times. 

The  exquisite  fine  sewing,  embroidery  and  lacework  of 
our  grandmothers  and  the  strained  sight  in  making  these 
fairy  creations  of  the  needle,  by  the  dim  tallow  dip  or 
"  Betty  lamp,"  may  be  the  unrecognised  cause  of  the 
glasses  worn  by  the  children  and  young  people  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  Even  our  mothers  taught  us  to  sew  by  hand 
and  make  stitches  that  "  could  not  be  seen."  The  fact 
that  "  they  could  not  be  seen  "  seemed  to  prove  conclu- 
sively their  correctness,  and  brought  forth  this  remark 
from  a  little  one  who  did  not  like  to  sew  and  preferred  to 
see  what  she  had  so  labouriously  completed  : 

"  Why,  mother,  what  is  the  use  of  making  stitches  if 
they  cannot  be  seen  ?  " 

Our  great-grandmothers,  grandmothers  and  mothers 
have  bequeathed  to  these  days  of  sewing-machine  stitch- 
ing and  machine-made  lace  embroidery  work  that  it 
will  be  well  for  this  generation  not  to  attempt  to  rival. 
An  elaborate  style  of  embroidery  was  fashionable  after 
the  lives  of  Colonial  women  had  been  somewhat  eased  and 
softened  by  more  comfortable  living  in  the  later  Colonial 
days. 

The  first  embroideries,  done  on  homespun  web,  with 
home-made  linen  or  wool  thread,  were  superseded  by 
exquisite  work  on  imported  mulls  and  linen  cambrics  of 
weblike  fineness  ;  also  cotton  muslin  of  a  Qfood  quality 


28o  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

was  covered  with  heavy  embroidery.  This  fashion  of 
mull  and  linen  embroidery  was  derived  from  France  and 
Holland,  the  earlier  homespun  forms  being  of  Puritan  or 
English  pattern. 

Mull  and  muslin  skirts  were  deeply  and  richly  embroid- 
ered, with  petticoats  to  match  ;  also  long  capes  of  white 
mull,  beautifully  wrought,  matched  the  gowns,  and  long 
linen  gloves,  reaching  far  up  the  arm,  home-made  and 
homespun,  were  finely  embroidered  by  the  Colonial  dames' 
busy  needles.  Many  beautiful  and  intricate  stitches 
abounded.  Satin  stitch,  feather  stitch,  lace  stitch  and 
numberless  drawn  stitches,  or  what  is  now  termed  drawn 
work,  was  familiar  to  our  grandmothers  ;  also  "  cording," 
or  laying  innumerable  fine  cords  as  headings  to  the 
embroidery  ;  and  "  tape  stitching,"  or  making  beautiful 
designs  of  flower  and  leaf  with  finest  linen  tape  and 
thread.  "  Stuffed  embroidery "  was  also  fashionable, 
especially  for  bureau  and  toilet  covers. 

The  fine  muslin  was  outlined  with  an  elaborate  pattern, 
grapes  and  leaves  lending  themselves  well  for  this  style  of 
work,  each  grape  and  leaf  being  "  stuffed,"  or  filled,  with 
fine  cotton  and  stitched  with  embroidery.  Not  only  were 
the  articles  of  personal  adornment  embroidered  and 
feather  stitched  and  "  drawn,"  but  the  household  linen 
came  in  for  its  share  of  the  exquisite  work,  and  the  ruffled 
shirts  of  the  men  were  an  important  part  of  the  charming 
industry. 

Mull  and  linen  of  exquisite  fineness  were  used  for  this 
purpose,  and  even  when  only  simply  hemmed  the  work 
was  so  fine  and  beautiful  that  there  was  no  possibility  of 
any  one  ever  catching  sight  of  the  tiny  stitches  made  with 
Nos.  200  and  300  cotton. 

The  lace  collars,  baby  caps  and  "modesty  pieces,"  to 
be  worn  with  low-necked  gowns  then  in  vogue,  were  the 
finest  work  and  of  the  most  intricate  design.  R.  T. 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

NOT  the  least  interesting  of  the  tendencies  of  the  times 
is  the  avidity  with  which  gentlewomen  whose  families 
have  become  impoverished  are  learning  to  put  a  premium 
on  honest  labour. 

To  establish  a  business  and  become  known  as  a  success- 
ful woman  of  affairs  is  not  now,  however,  solely  the  ambi- 
tion of  those  whose  necessities  drive  them  to  it.  The 
movement  threatens  to  become  eccentric  in  some  respects, 
and  almost  as  much  of  a  fad  among  society  maids  and 
matrons  as  the  winning  of  a  college  degree  among  daugh- 
ters of  wealth.  Just  as  certain  feminine  students,  in  the 
pursuit  of  good  form,  are  being  coached  for  college,  where 
perhaps  they  may  actually  lower  the  scholastic  standard, 
or  at  any  rate  do  nothing  to  raise  it,  very  much  in  the 
same  way  as  do  masculine  drones  who  resort  to  an  insti- 
tution of  learning  for  an  "  education,"  so  society  women  in 
our  large  cities,  without  the  incentive  of  absolute  need, 
are  entering  trade,  with  the  hope  of  killing  ennui  or  pro- 
viding luxuries  which  their  present  comfortable  income 
fails  to  supply. 

"  It  is  so  dull ,"  recently  wrote  a  society  woman 

from  her  country  seat.  "  All  the  old  timers  are  becoming 
absorbed  in  money-making  schemes.  It  really  seems  as  if 
nothing  were  left  for  me  to  do  except  to  go  into  trade. 
All  our  set  are  coming  to  it." 


282  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  distinctive  and  growing 
colony  of  women  who  have  been  bred  to  ease,  if  not  to 
luxury,  and  suddenly  thrown  upon  their  own  resources, 
and  who,  having  been  obliged  to  put  their  shoulders  to 
the  wheel,  are  meeting  with  a  financial  success  which  is 
not  always  accorded  to  men  who  have  embarked  in  busi- 
ness without  previous  training  or  discipline.  These  women 
bring  to  their  business  dealings  the  presence  and  manner 
inseparable  from  the  cultured  woman  of  the  drawing-room 
and  an  intelligence  brightened  by  contact  with  keen  wits 
and  active  natures  of  their  former  associates  in  a  busy 
social  life.  In  their  new  field  of  trade  they  are  winning 
new  laurels. 

A  notable  feature  of  the  presence  of  the  "  society 
woman  in  business  "  is  the  spirit  of  helpfulness  and  bon 
camaraderie  which  prevails  among  them.  Mutual  sym- 
pathy and  interest  have  insensibly  developed  a  tacit  code 
of  reciprocity.  For  instance,  in  cases  where  lines  of  busi- 
ness do  not  conflict,  these  women  are  wont  in  emergen- 
cies to  exchange  apprentices.  When  the  millinery  trade 
is  dull  and  economy  requires  that  the  payroll  be  lessened, 
the  milliner  often  sends  her  employees  to  a  maker  of  lamp 
shades  or  cotillon  favours,  whose  busy  months  follow 
those  of  the  bonnetmakers.  In  this  and  other  ways  they 
manage  jointly  to  give  work  to  skilled  employees  all  the 
year  round.  The  Editor  has  collected  a  number  of 
instances  of  the  success  of  women  belonging  to  the  class 
now  under  consideration,  for  the  information  and  encour- 
agement of  others  who  may  be  thrown  without  previous 
preparation  upon  their  own  efforts  for  a  livelihood. 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  283 

A  QUAINT  AND  DARING  IDEA. 

Millinery  in  the   Former  Loft  of  a  Stable. — Miss  Harman 

Brmvn  Establishes  One  of  the  Most  Unique  Shops  in  the 

City. — The  Descendant  of  a  Great  Banker  in  Trade. 

AMONG  successful  business  women  is  Miss  Harman 
Brown,  a  young  woman  of  varied  resource  and  wide  social 
acquaintance.  Having  a  natural  taste  for  millinery  and 
hearing  accidentally  of  a  millinery  school,  Miss  Brown 
investigated  it  and  paid  $25  for  a  course  of  lessons,  which 
she  followed  at  the  school  for  several  months. 

"Thinking  at  the  end  of  that  time,"  said  Miss  Brown, 
recalling  her  apprenticeship,  "  that  I  knew  it  all,  I  sent 
out  cards  to  friends  stating  that  I  was  prepared  to  trim 
their  hats,  which  I  did  very  amateurishly,  no  doubt,  but 
with  a  financial  success  which  encouraged  me  to  take  in 
the  following  fall  a  shop  at  No.  n  West  Thirty-ninth  St., 
where  I  made  a  formal  entry  into  trade." 

Experience  soon  taught  Miss  Brown  that  only  the  best 
work  would  do  for  the  best  people.  She  wisely  engaged 
the  most  experienced  milliners  and  designers  to  be  had. 
How  she  might  have  used  that  $25  misspent  at  the  school 
remains  a  subject  for  fruitful  speculation. 

After  a  year  of  varied  success  in  Thirty-ninth  St.,  Miss 
Brown  moved  to  her  present  quarters,  No.  4  West  Thirty- 
eighth  St.,  now  one  of  the  most  unique  marts  of  trade  in 
New  York.  Only  a  few  doors  west  of  Fifth  Ave.,  in  the 
heart  of  wealth  and  fashion,  the  place  was,  until  Miss 
Brown  revolutionized  it,  the  hayloft  of  a  livery  stable 
from  which  many  a  Gotham  belle  of  earlier  days  was 
accustomed  to  order  her  carriage.  A  lace-curtained  door, 
guarded  by  a  liliputian  in  livery,  and  softly  carpeted  stairs 
have  replaced  the  steep  ladder  which  once  made  access 


284  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

possible  to  the  storehouse  of  equine  bedding.  The  walls 
are  now  hung  with  green,  and  rose-shaded  electric  lights 
lend  soft  radiance  to  the  dainty  dressing-tables  where  my 
lady  sits  at  ease  while  the  latest  conceit  in  bonnet  or  hat 
is  adjusted  to  her  pretty  head. 

A  woman  with  the  courage  of  her  convictions  is  Miss 
Brown  and  a  firm  believer  in  individuality.  She  sees  no 
reason  why  Americans  should  not  exert  the  same  influence 
in  dress  as  do  the  Parisians  if  they  will  study  harmony  in 
colour  and  take  nature's  combinations  for  their  models. 

It  is  her  purpose  to  have  her  work-rooms  filled  with 
nature's  models  to  guide  the  trimmer.  Where  does  colour 
blend  more  boldly  or  harmoniously  than  in  the  wing  of 
the  bird  or  butterfly,  or  the  splendid  blooms  of  an  old- 
fashioned  garden  ? 

Miss  Brown  has  the  inherent  business  qualities  of  her 
grandfather,  Stewart  Brown,  founder  of  the  banking-house 
of  Brown  Brothers.  Her  fertile  brain  is  ever  devising 
surprises,  in  which  commercial  value  is  never  lost  sight  of. 
It  was  her  happy  thought  to  serve  tea  at  her  spring  open- 
ing, to  the  delight  of  both  out-of-town  patrons  and  city 
fashion.  Brewed  in  Chinese  fashion  was  the  tea,  and 
served  by  Chinese  boys  in  native  silken  toggery  borrowed 
for  the  occasion  from  the  Chinese  Mission.  A  forerunner 
of  the  opera  season  is  Miss  Brown's  display,  interspersed 
with  tea,  of  evening  headdress. 

To  her  is  given  the  distinction  of  practically  discourag- 
ing the  use  of  aigrettes  as  head  garniture.  For  this  pur- 
pose she  incloses  in  every  bonnet-box  sent  to  a  customer  a 
leaflet  of  the  Audubon  Society  setting  forth  the  cruelty 
inflicted  on  the  white  heron  in  behalf  of  my  lady's 
caprice. 

Miss  Brown  makes  frequent  business  trips  to  Washing- 
ton and  various  centres  of  fashion,  where  her  exhibits  of 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  285 

hats  and  bonnets  are  a  social  feature.  These  trips  rarely 
fail  to  increase  her  coffers  handsomely.  The  novelty,  the 
boldness  of  her  enterprises  and  the  far-seeing  sagacity 
with  which  she  puts  them  into  force  are  the  marvel  of  her 
companions  in  trade,  among  whom  she  exerts  a  salutary 
and  decisive  influence.  They  recognise  in  her  success  the 
result  of  honest,  well-directed  industry. 

"  Women  often  say  to  me  now,  when  they  see  me  in  my 
attractive  and  comparatively  easy  surroundings,"  said  Miss 
Brown  to  an  aspirant,  "  *  How  lovely  it  must  be  to  work 
with  all  these  beautiful  fabrics.'  I  wish  women  could  rea- 
lise what  it  means  to  achieve  even  a  moderate  success. 
To  a  woman  who  comes  to  me  asking  advice  how  to  succeed 
in  millinery  or  any  other  trade  I  always  say,  *  Learn  your 
trade  by  working  with  the  people  who  have  to  earn  their 
daily  bread  by  it.  On  no  account  go  into  any  trade  un- 
less you  have  to/  Trade  has  already  become  too  much 
of  a  fad.  There  are  fashionable  women  in  it  whose  hus- 
bands are  well  able  to  support  them.  Such  women  should 
be  discouraged.  They  do  not  understand  business 
through  actual  experience  ;  consequently  they  make  poor 
employers.  They  are  crowding  out  of  an  overstocked 
market  those  who  really  need  the  work.  Fortunately 
such  employers,  not  working  for  work's  sake,  do  not  long 
survive.  It  looked  so  easy  to  take  orders  and  smile  pleas- 
antly all  day  long.  Alas  !  only  the  real  worker  knows  the 
cost  of  the  trade  smile." 


TWO  WESTERN  BANKERS. 

IN  the  social  life  of  American  cities  bankers  occupy  an 
excellent  position.  It  frequently  happens  in  the  smaller 
towns  that  the  masculine  founders  of  the  local  banks 


286  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

leave  the  business  at  their  death  to  the  wives  and  daugh- 
ters ;  and  there  are  a  number  of  cases  now  in  which 
women  bred  to  ease  and  comfort  are  devoting  themselves 
with  success  to  the  management  of  these  institutions. 

One  such  case  is  reported  from  Burlington,  Wis.,  where 
Mrs.  Hall,  widow  of  the  founder,  has  long  carried  on  the 
affairs  of  the  bank,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  deposi- 
tors, it  would  seem,  as  the  bank  is  yet  in  operation  under 
her  charge.  Mrs.  Hall  is  a  comparatively  young  woman, 
and  besides  her  banking  business  she  leases  cottages  to 
persons  who  spend  the  summer  at  Brown's  Lake,  a  nearby 
and  popular  resort. 

Another  financial  institution  in  the  same  community  is 
the  Meinhardt  Bank,  of  which  Mrs.  Eliza  Meinhardt  is 
president  and  Miss  Edith  Meinhardt  is  cashier.  It  has 
ceased  to  be  a  private  institution,  and  is  now  a  full-fledged 
State  bank,  having  a  capital  of  $75,000.  There  is  one 
man  connected  with  this  woman's  bank,  but  that  is  because 
he  belongs  to  the  family.  Miss  Meinhardt  feels  that  she 
is  as  capable  of  shooting  a  bandit  as  of  shaving  a  note,  for 
she  says, "  That's  in  the  business  !  " 


FROM  BALLROOM  TO  SHOP. 

One  Society  Girl's  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  Support. — Miss 

Schroeder' s  Dressmaking  Establishment  on  Murray 

Hill,  the  fashionable  Quarter  of  New 

York  City. 

FROM  the  ballroom  to  the  workshop  is,  in  brief,  the 
story  of  Miss  Selina  Richards  Schroeder,  the  youngest 
society  girl  in  New  York  City  to  embark  in  business. 

Years  ago  her  father,  Mr.  Gilliat  Schroeder,  came  from 
Mobile,  Ala.,  to  New  York,  where  a  large  fortune  and  a 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  287 

thriving  business  in  cotton  gave  him  prominence  among  the 
wealthy.  Allied  to  the  old  Knickerbocker  regime  was  her 
mother,  known  in  her  girlhood  as  Miss  Louisa  Rickettes- 
Lawrence.  The  Schroeder  house  was  noted  for  its  true 
Southern  grace  and  hospitality.  Scarcely  had  Miss 
Schroeder  passed  her  teens  when  an  unfortunate  specula- 
tion impoverished  the  family,  cut  short  her  brief  career  in 
the  ballroom,  and  forced  her  to  confront  the  problem  of 
self-support. 

Many  avenues  to  occupation  presented  themselves,  not 
excluding  teaching,  but  the  latter  was  promptly  dismissed 
from  consideration  when  the  young  aspirant  discovered 
how  poorly  paid  are  the  services  of  her  who  "  trains  the 
young  idea  how  to  shoot."  More  original  and  congenial 
occupations  required  capital. 

Being  clever  with  the  needle,  Miss  Schroeder,  to  the 
surprise  of  her  "  set,"  finally  decided  to  open  a  dressmak- 
ing establishment.  The  spring  of  the  first  year  of  her 
venture  she  made  summer  clothes  for  her  friends. 
Encouraged  by  their  approval,  she  took  one  room  in  a 
good  locality  in  Thirtieth  St.  the  following  fall,  and  sent 
out  three  hundred  cards  to  her  friends,  announcing  that 
she  had  established  herself  in  trade  and  awaited  their 
patronage.  Her  sole  assistant  was  a  woman  who  had 
mastered  the  modiste's  art  in  the  workshop  of  Doucet. 
Before  two  months  had  passed  a  second  room  was  rented 
in  the  same  house,  and  her  employees  had  increased  to  six 
women. 

So  steadily  has  patronage  since  grown  that  recently  she 
has  been  obliged  to  make  a  third  movement  in  pursuit  of 
larger  quarters.  Opposite  to  the  Thirty-fifth  St.  entrance 
to  the  Hotel  Waldorf-Astoria,  No.  10  West  Thirty-fifth 
St.,  she  is  now  modestly  but  substantially  located,  while 
twenty-five  women  in  the  workroom  are  scarcely  sufficient 


288  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

to  keep  pace  with  the  orders  from  fashionable  women, 
who  continue  to  come  to  the  first  "  lady  "  dressmaker, 
because,  to  quote  a  client,  "  Miss  Schroeder  has  excellent 
and  original  taste,  and  has  kept  her  prices  reasonable." 

Aside  from  taste  and  skill,  Miss  Schroeder  is  gifted 
with  exceptional  business  common-sense.  Without  these 
qualities,  taste  and  skill  are  of  little  avail  in  these  con- 
gested, competitive  times.  The  patronage  that  came  in 
the  tentative  days  of  her  venture,  attracted  largely  by 
sympathy  or  curiosity,  could  never  have  been  retained 
had  she  failed  to  satisfy  taste  and  purses.  Hers  was 
the  intuitive  knowledge  of  human  nature  which  supple- 
ments the  preliminary  training  which,  for  instance,  a 
young  man  gets  in  the  workshop  or  counting-room  before 
he  embarks  in  business  for  himself. 

It  is  difficult  to  identify  so  young,  dainty  and  sprightly 
a  little  woman  as  Miss  Schroeder  with  so  substantially 
established  a  business — established  solely  through  her 
brave  determination  to  earn  her  own  living  by  the  exer- 
cise of  the  most  practical,  commercial  gift  within  her 
keeping.  Every  detail  of  the  Schroeder  dressmaking 
establishment  has  the  personal  supervision  of  its  mistress. 
To  each  client  who  comes  there  is  accorded  the  gracious 
reception  of  the  hostess  to  the  guest.  Miss  Schroeder  is 
warmly  interested  in  all  other  women  who  are  struggling 
for  maintenance,  and  is  in  touch  with  the  social  move- 
ments and  vagaries  of  the  times. 


EXPERT  IN  FASHIONS. 

"CONSULTING  fashion  expert  "is  a  title  explaining  an 
entirely  new  occupation  for  a  well-informed  woman. 
The  Countess  de  Montaigu  fills  this  position  in  one  of  St, 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  289 

Louis's  large  dry-goods  establishments.  There  are  many 
women  engaged  in  this  occupation  in  London  and  Paris, 
but  the  idea  is  new  in  the  United  States.  The  duties  per- 
taining to  the  office  are  numerous  and  well-defined.  All 
mail  orders  receive  the  attention  of  the  Countess.  When 
a  woman  wants  a  new  gown  she  sends  with  the  order  a 
statement  of  her  height,  size,  weight,  complexion,  colour 
of  hair  and  eyes,  age  and  purpose  for  which  the  gown 
is  desired.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  fashion  expert  to  send 
the  purchaser  an  entirely  suitable  costume.  Is  there  not 
room  for  experts  in  fashions  in  other  cities  ? 


AN   ARTISTIC  SHOPPER. 

One  Plucky  and  Cultured  Woman's  Success. — Mrs.  Frederick 

E.  Parsons  Creates  a  Business  in  the  Decoration  and 

Furnishing  of  Houses  and  the  Purchase 

of  Wardrobes. 

A  MILKMAN  on  his  way  to  town  stopped  one  morning, 
as  was  his  wont,  to  water  his  milk.  His  pail  scooped  up 
from  the  brook  two  frogs,  which  he  unwittingly  threw  into 
the  can. 

"  I'll  drown,"  cried  one  frog, 

"I  won't,"  said  the  other  ;  "  I'll  kick." 

When  the  milkman  reached  the  city  he  lifted  the  lid,  to 
find  one  frog  at  the  bottom  dead,  while  the  other  floated 
serenely  on  a  little  pat  of  butter  he  had  kicked  for  him- 
self. 

When  suddenly  bereft  of  husband  and  income,  and 
awakened  to  a  realisation  that  the  support  and  education 
of  three  young  sons  were  dependent  upon  her,  Mrs. 
Frederick  E.  Parsons,  daughter  of  a  clergyman,  wasted 


29o  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

no  time  in  idle  regrets  or  appeals  to  rich  relatives.  Hers 
was  the  heritage  of  pluck,  industry  and  healthy, optimism. 
Recalling  the  fable  of  her  schooldays,  she  determined  to 
kick  out  of  misfortune  a  little  pat  of  butter  for  herself  and 
fledglings.  To  this  end  she  turned  to  many  things  in 
hope  of  earning  a  competency.  In  her  girlhood  she  had 
been  an  accomplished  pianist.  That  accomplishment  and 
proficiency  are  not  identical  factors  in  the  struggle  for 
bread  she  soon  learned,  as  had  many  a  woman  before  her. 
With  natural  feeling  for  colour  and  deftness  of  touch,  she 
had  always  been  successful  in  the  beautifying  of  her  own 
home.  Why  could  she  not  be  of  service  to  home-makers 
who  were  denied  that  gift  ?  To  the  furnishing  and  deco- 
rating of  quaint  and  artistic  houses  she  turned  at  length 
her  fertile  brain  and  willing  hands,  and  the  success  which 
she  is  meeting  would  seem  to  justify  the  wisdom  of  her 
choice. 

Her  efforts  are  directed  particularly  to  the  needs  of 
people  of  taste  and  limited  means  who  live  remote  from 
metropolitan  markets.  Last  spring  Mrs.  Parsons  made 
her  debut  as  a  business  woman  by  the  issue  of  dainty  cards 
announcing  that  she  was  prepared  to  execute  commissions 
of  any  description  or  to  shop  for  clients.  Her  sponsors 
as  a  commission  shopper  are  Mrs.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan, 
No.  219  Madison  Ave  ;  Mrs.  James  J.  Goodwin,  No.  17 
West  Fifty-fourth  St.,  and  Dr.  John  S.  White,  Berkeley 
School,  No.  20  West  One  Hundred  and  Forty-fourth  St. 

Mrs.  Parsons  purchases  for  her  clients  without  charge. 
No  advance  is  made  upon  the  regular  purchasing  price, 
because  she  depends  upon  the  commissions  allowed  her 
by  the  stores  for  her  profit.  She  gives  estimates,  and  will 
send  samples  on  receipt  of  necessary  postage.  If  a  person 
at  a  distance  sends  to  Mrs.  Parsons  a  drawing  of  a  room 
to  be  furnished,  marking  the  number  of  doors  and  win- 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  291 

dows,  the  direction  from  which  the  light  comes  in  and  the 
amount  of  money  to  be  expended,  a  design  will  be  returned 
with  the  whole  scheme  of  colour  arranged  with  artistic 
ability— wall  paper,  pictures,  photographs,  proper  furni- 
ture, samples  of  carpet,  curtains  and  draperies.  The  design 
will  cost  the  client  nothing  but  the  postage. 

The  story  of  the  bread-earning  efforts  of  this  brave 
little  commission  merchant,  as  told  in  The  Daily  Tribune, 
has  brought  her  many  commissions.  Not  the  least  inter- 
esting is  that  of  a  woman  in  Florida,  who  built  a  hand- 
some residence  some  time  ago.  Two  rooms  were  left 
unfurnished  because  she  was  unable  to  come  East  or  to 
get  through  the  mail  material  satisfactory  in  design, 
colour  and  price.  She  sent  to  Mrs.  Parsons  the  outline  of 
her  rooms  and  the  colour  she  wished  to  predominate  in 
their  decoration.  So  satisfactorily  was  the  commission 
executed  that  the  woman  wrote  profuse  thanks,  and  stated 
that  her  rooms  were  the  envy  of  her  friends,  who  hoped 
also  to  avail  themselves  of  the  "  lady  commissioner's  " 
skill. 

Mrs.  Parsons  also  deals  in  rare  old  furniture,  while 
everything  which  pertains  to  the  wardrobe  of  man,  woman, 
child  or  infant  finds  place  in  her  order-book.  From  morn- 
ing to  night  she  is  flitting  from  shop  to  shop,  her  sunny 
smile  and  gracious  manner  evoking  the  interest  and  good- 
will of  clerk  and  merchant,  although  the  latter  views  with 
no  royal  favour  the  woman  shopping  commissioner,  since 
her  purchases  conflict  with  his  mailing  department  and 
necessitate  the  forfeiture  of  a  percentage  that  would 
otherwise  be  his. 

Mrs.  Parsons's  office  is  in  her  home,  a  restful,  artistic 
apartment,  at  No.  66  East  Seventy-seventh  St.  There 
she  receives  her  mail  and  thence  she  sends  out  samples 
and  has  filled  orders  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  so  exten- 


292  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

sively  has  her  business  grown.  To  educate  the  three 
boys  is  an  incentive  which  keeps  her  to  the  work,  how- 
ever discouraging  and  monotonous  it  may  become  at 
times. 

Like  the  majority  of  well-bred  women  who  have  been 
thrown  without  warning  or  preparation  on  their  own 
resources,  Mrs.  Parsons  finds  nothing  except  kindness 
and  encouragement  from  her  companions  of  more  pros- 
perous days.  "  The  stars  shine  all  around  us,"  maintains 
the  furnisher  and  decorator  of  quaint  and  artistic  houses, 
"  even  when  hidden  from  our  sight." 


LESSEE  OF  A  MUSIC  HALL. 

IT  is  reported  from  Chicago  that  that  city  possesses 
the  only  woman  in  the  country  who  conducts  an  agency 
for  supplying  people  who  entertain  and  societies  which 
wish  to  give  benefit  performances  with  the  artists  for  a 
successful  evening's  amusement. 

Mrs.  George  B.  Carpenter  is  the  widow  of  a  man  of 
business,  who  left  her  a  handsome  competence.  Shortly 
after  her  husband's  death  Mrs.  Carpenter  leased  the  Cen- 
tral Music  Hall,  in  Chicago,  once  the  most  popular  place 
in  that  city  for  concerts  and  musical  entertainments.  She 
managed  the  enterprise  with  much  discretion  and  energy, 
and  added  to  her  means  a  sum  which  ought  to  have  proved 
sufficient  to  maintain  her  in  comfort  the  rest  of  her  life. 
She  then  decided  to  spend  some  time  in  travel  and  enjoy- 
ment, and,  going  abroad  with  her  son  and  daughter,  she 
provided  the  latter  with  such  instruction,  under  good  mas- 
ters, upon  the  violin  that  Miss  Carpenter  became  an 
expert  violinist. 

But   the   foreign    tour    proved   disastrous    financially, 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  293 

because,  in  her  absence,  her  savings  were  completely 
swept  away,  and  she  came  home  to  begin  life  anew. 
Through  the  advantage  of  possessing  a  wide  circle  of 
friends,  she  soon  found  herself  at  the  head  of  a  successful 
business  in  an  entirely  new  line,  which  was  kindred,  how- 
ever, to  her  former  venture  in  the  management  of  a  music 
hall.  During  the  prosecution  of  the  former  enterprise 
she  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  large  number  of 
leading  singers  and  musicians,  and  she  turned  this  acquaint- 
ance to  good  account  by  opening  an  agency  to  supply 
singers  and  musicians  to  those  desiring  their  services. 
The  business  now  extends  to  other  cities  in  the  West,  and 
hundreds  of  concerts  and  performances  have  taken  place 
through  her  activities,  and  scores  of  artists  have  found 
remunerative  employment  through  her  agency. 

Mrs.  Carpenter's  success  is  another  proof  of  the  advan- 
tage of  social  life  and  wide  culture  when  a  woman  must 
enter  upon  the  stormy  sea  of  business  life.  Those  who 
are  entirely  unknown  at  the  outset  of  their  business  careers 
are  sadly  handicapped.  Years  of  endeavour  may  be  neces- 
sary before  they  are  known  or  have  gathered  around 
them  a  circle  of  helpful  friends. 


DAINTY  NEGLIGEES. 

Miss  Julia  W.  C.  Carroll's  Venture.— A  Shop  Rich  in  Orig- 
inal and  Attractive  Novelties  Which  Appeal  to  Wo- 
men of  Refined  Tastes. 

ONE  of  the  most  attractive  young  women  in  fashionable 
trade  in  Gotham  is  Miss  Julia  Wingate  Castleman  Carroll, 
a  relative  of  the  late  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  and 
daughter  of  a  former  Louisville  belle,  who  is  yet  noted  for 
her  beauty.  Miss  Carroll  was  educated  at  Mrs.  Sylvanus 


294  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Reed's  school,  and  during  the  period  of  her  tuition  she 
made  valuable  acquaintances  in  New  York  whom  she  finds 
to-day  her  staunch  patrons. 

It  was  after  a  trip  around  the  world  that  Miss  Carroll, 
whose  handsome  head  is  full  of  original  ideas,  decided  to 
embark  in  trade.  To  the  fashioning  of  negligees,  break- 
fast jackets,  fancy  petticoats — all  dainty  essentials  to  the 
well-being  of  the  woman  of  means  and  leisure — she  turned 
her  attention  scarcely  a  year  ago.  By  dint  of  persever- 
ance she  is  now  building  up  a  business  of  rich  possibilities 
at  No.  4  West  Thirty-eighth  St.  When  necessity  forced 
this  courageous  girl  to  think  of  a  livelihood,  she  seriously 
considered  several  other  needle  crafts,  but  investigation 
revealed  the  fact  that  their  profitableness  had  been  over- 
estimated. 

A  wide  and  intimate  contact  with  the  tastes  and  vaga- 
ries of  women  of  means,  coupled  with  close  observation 
in  other  lands,  enables  Miss  Carroll  not  only  to  produce 
original  work,  but  frequently  to  anticipate  the  most  exclu- 
sive Paris  shops.  Not  infrequently  patrons  are  heard  to 
remark  that  "  we  find  in  Miss  Carroll's  shop  dainties  not 
to  be  seen  elsewhere."  Things  which  are  original  and 
practical  are  recognised  by  Miss  Carroll  as  having  a  good 
chance  of  success.  The  conventional  tea-gown  or  negli- 
gee is  often  suggestive  of  carelessness,  and  this  at  once 
detracts  from  dainty  feminine  attractiveness.  Miss  Car- 
roll makes  a  specialty  of  the  unboned  waist  and  skirt  of 
simple  or  elaborate  garniture.  This  combination  enables 
a  woman  to  wear  a  home  gown  with  becoming  comfort. 
At  first  her  customers  hesitated  to  order  an  unboned 
waist,  especially  those  of  them  inclined  to  embonpoint, 
but  when  the  ease  and  freedom  of  this  attire  were  made 
apparent  they  readily  yielded. 

Miss  Carroll  excels  in  original  negligees.     She  was  the 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  295 

first  to  utilize  the  soft-hued  Italian  blankets  for  conver- 
sion into  lounging  robes.  Equally  picturesque  is  the 
ingenuity  with  which  she  converts  Paisley  and  India 
shawls  into  luxuriantly  suggestive  Oriental  home  negligees. 
Her  aim  is  to  have  her  shop  rich  in  things  not  to  be  seen  in 
the  metropolitan  stores.  She  seldom  .relies  on  the  con- 
ventional importers  for  novelties.  Interested  friends,  flit- 
ting back  and  forth  between  this  country  and  Paris,  give 
her  the  privilege  of  copying  their  choice  French  models. 
In  this  manner  she  is  able  to  obtain  a  rare  collection  of 
novelties  which  have  been  selected  by  women  of  refined 
taste. 

Wash  summer  dresses  and  shirt  waists,  as  well  as  fancy 
bodices,  are  also  a  substantial  part  of  Miss  Carroll's  stock 
in  trade.  Her  business  is  apart  from  the  regular  dress- 
maker's. It  is  her  purpose  to  supplement,  not  to  rival, 
the  dressmaker's  art. 

"  I  never  go  into  the  street  to  get  ideas,"  said  Miss 
Carroll,  "  to  weave  into  my  business.  Nobody  predicted 
success  for  me,  but  I  am  gaining  and  am  determined  to 
succeed.  I  had  little  idea  of  business  when  I  started. 
Had  I  known  all  the  difficulties  I  would  never  have  had 
the  courage  to  venture,  in  all  probability." 

It  is  only  by  having  exclusive  designs  and  stuffs  that 
the  amateur  woman  in  business  can  hope  to  succeed  in 
supplying  or  supplementing  the  great  demands  of  the 
metropolis.  She  must  give  the  woman  of  fashion  the 
indefinable  something  which  appeals  to  individual  taste. 
Her  practised  eye  must  be  satisfied,  at  a  glance,  that 
duplicates  are  not  to  be  had  in  the  shopping  district. 
Only  a  woman  who  recognises  this  truism  and  is  suffi- 
ciently fertile  in  inventiveness  to  create  and  supply  a 
demand  for  novelties  can  hope  for  independent  busi- 
ness success  in  New  York. 


296  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

How  large  a  factor  personality  is  in  the  life  of  the  suc- 
cessful shopkeeper  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  Miss  Car- 
roll's venture.  To  a  wholesome  and  refreshing  personality 
add  the  soft  Southern  speech  and  the  gracious  ease  and 
warmth  of  manner  inseparable  from  the  daughters  of  Dix- 
ieland, and  the  riddle  is  solved  why  so  many  people  make 
more  than  one  visit  to  No.  4  West  Thirty-eighth  St. 


A  REAL  ESTATE  OWNER  IN  SAN  JOSE. 

MRS.  C.  J.  MARTIN  is  one  of  the  busiest  women  in  San 
Jose",  the  "  Garden  City  of  California."  She  has  many 
social  duties  to  perform,  but  finds  time  to  transact  much 
practical  business.  Mrs.  Martin  owns  several  of  the  best 
business  blocks  in  San  Jose",  and  personally  superintends 
such  improvements  as  they  may  need,  as  well  as  the  other 
matters  connected  with  their  management. 

She  is  also  one  of  the  most  active  workers  for  the  Red 
Cross  in  her  State.  A  short  time  ago  Mrs.  Martin  made 
arrangements  with  all  the  street-car  lines  of  her  city  by 
which  they  were  to  donate  all  the  fares  for  one  day  to  the 
Red  Cross.  When  the  different  companies  assented,  each 
car  was  placed  in  the  care  of  one  of  the  usual  officers  and 
two  women  selected  by  the  promoter  of  the  scheme,  and 
the  traffic  was  certainly  most  flourishing  throughout  that 
day. 

Mrs.  Martin  drew  the  plans  for  her  summer  house  at 
Monterey  and  superintended  its  construction.  In  one 
corner  of  the  drawing-room  she  had  erected  a  window 
overlooking  the  whole  of  Monterey  Bay,  the  old  capital 
and  the  Del  Monte  gardens. 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  297 

SPECIAL    PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Miss  Floride  Green's  Striking  Success. — An  Alabama  Girl's 

Ingenious  Development  of  a  Branch  of  Photography  Which 

Calls  not  Only  for  Artistic  Taste  but  for  Some  Other 

Qualities  as  Well. 

How  readily  a  novelty  is  accepted  by  exclusive  New 
York,  when  it  comes  in  the  two-fold  guise  of  artistic  and 
common  sense,  is  exemplified  in  the  career  of  Miss 
Floride  Green,  the  first  photographer  to  make  a  specialty 
of  going  into  New  York  houses  and  taking  the  pictures  of 
children  in  their  natural  surroundings. 

Miss  Green  is  a  Southern  girl,  a  native  of  Alabama. 
Her  father,  General  Duff  Green,  of  Washington,  D.  C., 
after  losing  everything  in  the  war,  migrated  to  Cali- 
fornia, where  Miss  Green  was  educated.  While  teaching 
school  in  San  Francisco,  she  was  one  of  the  first  to  take 
up  amateur  photography.  An  inborn  love  and  taste  for 
art  soon  manifested  itself  in  her  camera  experiments.  So 
artistic  were  the  results  of  her  studies  of  negro  life,  made 
while  on  a  visit  to  her  Southern  home,  that  they  were 
painted  on  slides  and  exhibited  in  Europe.  So  diligently 
did  she  apply  herself  to  the  problem  of  light  and  shade, 
as  photography  presents  it,  that  her  pictures  at  length 
attracted  the  attention  of  artists  as  well  as  photographers. 
Two  years  ago,  encouraged  by  their  commendation,  she 
came  to  New  York,  where,  unknown,  she  has  built  up  a 
unique  specialty  and  a  prosperous  business  through  her 
own  unaided  efforts. 

Miss  Green's  first  house  order  in  New  York  came 
through  four  pictures  exhibited  in  a  window,  which  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  a  society  woman,  the  mother  of  a 
restless  child  who  had  evaded  the  skill  of  photographers. 
Patiently  Miss  Green  worked  with  the  trying  little  sub- 


298  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ject,  destroying  negative  after  negative  until  confident 
she  had  secured  results  that  came  up  to  the  standard  she 
has  set  for  her  work.  To  her  success  in  winning  the  con- 
fidence of  this  timid  child  has  been  traced  numerous  un- 
expected orders.  Whenever  the  pictures  were  admired 
the  mother  gave  to  her  friends  the  address  of  the  photog- 
rapher. In  this  manner  Miss  Green's  work  has  made  its 
way.  She  is  fond  of  extolling  the  promptness  of  New 
York  society  women  in  all  matters  of  business,  as  well  as 
their  uniform  appreciation  and  helpfulness.  Her  skill  is 
not  limited  to  child  life,  as  her  photographs  of  young  wo- 
men attest,  while  in  her  reproductions  of  men  are  pre- 
served the  power  and  strength  of  the  originals.  Each 
subject  is  a  study,  and  it  is  ever  her  aim  to  preserve  as 
far  as  possible  the  individual,  the  personal. 

The  success  of  her  first  house  order  in  the  metropolis 
has  gradually  spread  into  exclusive  homes,  until  Miss 
Green's  untiring  patience,  industry  and  truly  artistic  gifts 
are  now  generally  and  substantially  recognised.  Her 
business  has  grown  until  to-day  her  studio  at  No.  28 
West  Thirtieth  St.  occupies  an  entire  top  floor.  On  its 
walls  may  be  traced  the  rising  generation  of  many  of  New 
York's  distinguished  and  wealthy  families.  Miss  Green 
has  no  rival  in  her  special  field,  photography  in  the  home. 
It  is  her  keen  artistic  appreciation  and  understanding 
of  light  which  have  enabled  her  to  master  this  most 
difficult  feat.  Families  with  children  to  photograph  at 
every  stage  in  infantile  growth  appreciate  the  advantage 
of  being  able  to  summon  to  their  homes  a  photographer 
who  is  in  sympathetic  touch  with  child  life.  What  a 
relief  to  have  the  children  dressed  and  posed  in  familiar 
surroundings  !  So  interested  does  the  household  become 
in  the  novelty  of  having  the  children's  pictures  taken 
under  their  own  rooftree  that  mother,  father  and  grand- 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  299 

parents  are  liable  to  yield  to  the  fascination  of  the  experi- 
ment and  the  importunity  of  the  children,  and  end  in 
having  their  own  pictures  taken,  multiplying  in  this  genial 
way  the  clientele  of  the  clever  photographer. 

It  has  become  a  fad  for  brides  to  summon  Miss  Green 
to  their  boudoirs,  in  order  that  they  may  be  photographed 
before  leaving  for  the  church  or  descending  to  the  parlour 
for  the  marriage  vow. 

Women  naturally  feel  more  at  ease  and  appreciate  the 
advantage  of  the  presence  of  a  delicately  refined  and 
well-bred  woman  like  Miss  Green,  when  it  comes  to  rob- 
ing and  disrobing  in  the  search  for  varied  photographic 
effects. 

Throughout  the  summer  months  Miss  Green's  beautiful 
studio  is  open,  and  on  short  notice  she  is  prepared  to  take 
her  paraphernalia  to  country  house  or  seaside  resort, 
where  many  women  have  more  leisure  to  give  to  the 
photographing  of  themselves  and  their  children  than  dur- 
ing the  fashionable  season  in  town. 

Miss  Green  believes  that  women  are  peculiarly  adapted 
to  succeed  as  photographers,  and  that  the  bread-winning 
possibilities  of  the  art  are  encouraging,  provided  that  the 
aspirant  is  willing  to  give  tireless  application  to  the  mas- 
tery of  every  detail,  which  is  inseparable  from  the  best 
work. 

"  New  York,"  she  asserts,  "  is  no  field  for  a  woman  to 
experiment  with  photography.  She  must  come  equipped, 
and  come  with  some  distinctive  individuality  or  specialty, 
if  she  hopes  for  recognition  and  livelihood." 


DIRECTOR  OF  WEDDINGS. 

AN  ingenious  and  well-bred  woman,  whose  experience 
in  social  life  is  now  being  put  to  practical  use,  has  opened 


SOP  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

a  new  field  of  occupation  for  her  sisters.  It  is  that  of 
"director  of  weddings."  This  woman,  realising  how 
much  of  an  undertaking  a  wedding  is,  and  how  much 
care  and  trouble  fall  upon  the  bride-elect,  and  into  what  a 
demoralized  state  a  wedding  throws  the  whole  household, 
has  taken  upon  herself  the  burden  of  responsibility  of  it 
all. 

She  helps  in  the  selection  of  the  trousseau.  After  buy- 
ing the  material  for  the  gowns  and  superintending  their 
making,  she  advises  as  to  the  gowns  of  the  mother  and 
sisters,  and  dictates  those  of  the  bridesmaids.  She  installs 
herself  in  the  home  of  the  bride,  sometimes  before  the 
wedding,  and  makes  arrangements  for  the  decorations, 
and  even  arranges  with  the  caterer. 

Of  course,  she  has  many  original  ideas,  and  is  constantly 
in  search  of  new  ones,  so  that  there  may  be,  perhaps, 
some  special  novel  feature  to  each  wedding.  She  is 
exceedingly  clever  in  carrying  out  ideas  suggested  by 
others. 


A  STUDIO  FOR  COLOUR  STUDY. 

A  Novel  Enterprise. — Colour- Blindness  More  Common  Than 

Supposed. — The  Business  and  the  Pleasure  of  Life 

Greatly  Helped  and  Enhanced  by  the  Study 

of  Colour. 

IT  remains  for  "What  Women  Can  Earn"  to  make 
the  first  announcement  of  the  opening,  at  No.  37 
West  Twenty-second  Street,  in  New  York  City,  of  a 
studio  devoted  exclusively  to  the  study  of  colour. 
The  originator  and  promoter  of  this  unique  enterprise, 
which  promises  to  be  far-reaching  in  commercial  effect, 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  301 

is  a  woman  of  position,  born  and  brought  up  in  New 
York  City,  who  has  given  years  of  study  to  colour 
artistically  and  scientifically  considered.  Mrs.  E.  N.  Van- 
derpoel  is  a  member  of  the  New  York  Water  Colour  Club, 
and  a  pupil  of  R.  Swain  Gifford,  William  Sartain  and 
other  leading  masters.  Her  reasons  for  opening  a  colour 
studio  are  founded  on  irrefutable  facts  revealed  by  the 
scientist  and  acknowledged  by  the  artist. 

Among  men  in  the  civilised  world  one  in  every  twenty- 
five,  or  4  per  cent.,  is  colour-blind.  Many  men  grow  to 
mature  age  before  they  find  out  that  they  have  that 
defect. 

Among  women  only  one  in  four  thousand  is  colour- 
blind. An  expert  who  has  examined  many  men  of  defec- 
tive eyesight  has  never  yet  seen  a  colour-blind  woman. 
He  offers  no  explanation  of  the  cause.  The  preponder- 
ance of  colour-blindness  among  men  may  be  somewhat 
attributed  to  their  excessive  use  of  tobacco  and  alcoholic 
stimulants,  which  are  known  to  produce  the  disease. 

Not  long  ago  a  man  was  surprised  to  find  he  saw  no  red, 
only  gray,  in  the  middle  figure  of  a  five  spot  of  diamonds, 
and  on  consulting  an  occulist  he  learned  that  he  was 
threatened  with  the  loss  of  his  colour  sense.  By  reducing 
the  strength  and  quantity  of  tobacco  used  he  began  to 
recover  his  normal  colour  vision. 

This  is  the  first  reason  Mrs.  Vanderpoel  assigns  for  the 
study  of  colour,  as  "the  study  necessarily  begins  with  an 
examination  of  the  eyes,  such  as  applicants  for  places  on 
boats  and  railroads  are  now  obliged  to  pass.  The  pro- 
priety of  such  an  examination  in  their  case  is  recognised 
because  the  safety  of  passengers  depends  upon  the  ability 
of  the  engineer  to  know  a  red  from  a  green  light.  Why 
should  it  not  be  equally  valuable  for  a  colour-blind  person 
to  learn  of  his  or  her  defect  before  deciding  upon  taking 


302  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

up  some  trade  or  profession  where  colour-blindness  would 
be  a  continual  handicap  ?  " 

Some  time  ago  in  a  weekly  paper  this  question  was 
asked  :  "  Being  a  salesman  in  a  carpet  store,  I  have  great 
difficulty  in  distinguishing  the  different  shades  of  brown. 
How  can  I  learn  about  colours  ? "  In  all  probability  this 
salesman  was  colour-blind  without  knowing  it. 

Florists  have  spoken  of  the  growing  need  of  colour 
knowledge  in  their  business,  expressing  the  desire  for  a 
school  for  colour  study,  adding  that  florists  had  no  time 
for  the  study  of  art,  the  only  present  means  of  studying 
colour,  save  for  the  good  but  rudimentary  lessons  now 
given  in  the  kindergartens  and  some  primary  schools. 

At  the  colour  studio  practical  lessons  are  given  in 
colour.  "  If  one  will  stop  to  think,"  Mrs.  Vanderpoel 
maintains,  "  how  largely  colour  enters  into  the  trades, 
aside  from  the  designs  ;  how  many  people  spend  their 
lives  in  working  on  coloured  materials,  in  weaving  and 
printing  coloured  silks,  wools  and  cottons ;  in  selling 
ribbons,  carpets,  dress  and  upholstery  goods  ;  in  making 
wall  paper  and  furniture,  fashioning  clothing  and  head- 
gear ;  in  house  painting  and  decorating,  in  arranging 
homes,  flower  gardens  and  shop  windows,  the  advantages 
of  thorough  knowledge  of  the  qualities  and  quantities  of 
contrast  and  harmony  of  colours  will  be  seen  and  appre- 
ciated." 

The  healthfulness  of  good  colour  is  another  reason  for 
its  study.  We  are  barely  upon  the  threshold  of  what  we 
may  hope  to  know  in  that  line.  An  admirable  article  in 
one  of  our  monthlies,  entitled  "  Colour  in  Cities,"  speaks 
with  great  force  of  the  "  colour  anarchy  "  in  our  streets, 
which  injures,  as  it  were,  our  colour  sense.  It  prevents 
appreciation  of  good  and  bad  colour  and  their  effects. 

Individuals  are  more  or  less  sensitive  to  colours,  but  an 


SOCIETY  WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  303 

extreme  case  may  be  cited,  in  which  a  certain  shade  of 
purple  was  an  irritating  cause.  "  Let  me  show  you  what 
the  colour  of  your  dress  does  to  me,"  said  a  girl  ;  and, 
on  baring  her  arm,  it  was  seen  to  be  covered  with  what  is 
commonly  called  "  goose  flesh."  It  is  said  that  one  of 
the  most  severe  ordeals  among  the  Brahmins  is  called  the 
"  purple  test,"  and  that  it  sometimes  drives  the  neophyte 
mad. 

There  is  surely  a  large  field  for  investigation  in  this 
direction.  May  not  invalids  be  benefited  by  surrounding 
them  with  helpful  and  cheering  colour  ?  In  European 
asylums  experiments  have  even  been  made  on  insane 
patients. 

The  aesthetic  enjoyment  to  be  derived  from  the  study 
of  colour  is  unquestioned.  It  may  be  asked  why  there  is 
need  of  study,  if  one  has  a  "  good  eye  for  colour  "  by 
nature.  Is  it  not  an  analogous  case  to  that  of  a  person 
with  a  good  ear  for  music  ?  Does  that  prevent  his  study- 
ing to  improve  and  refine  it  ?  Despite  a  good  eye  for 
form,  does  not  an  artist  spend  years  in  drawing,  to  culti- 
vate his  natural  ability  ? 

Music  seems  to  have  had  the  advantage  over  colour  in 
far  more  extensive  study  and  development  during  the 
last  two  or  three  centuries,  and  more  general  knowledge 
of  the  main  principles  that  govern  colour  harmonies 
would  surely  add  to  the  ease  with  which  many  people  do 
their  work,  and  increase  their  pleasure  in  it,  while  the 
discomfort  many  unconsciously  derive  from  discordant 
colouring  would  be  modified  if  not  eradicated.  A  visit 
to  this  colour  studio  is  a  revelation  that  will  scarcely  fail 
to  invite  the  study  of  the  thoughtful. 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

WHY  NOT  RAISE  COWS  ? 

Dairy  Management  Is  Distinctively  a  Woman's  Work. — Mrs. 
lone  Van  Gorder's  Experience  on  a  Ranch  in  Argentina. — 
Sure  That  the  Undertaking  Would  Be  Easier 
Right  Here  at  Home. 

IN  coming  to  the  United  States  from  South  America,  I 
am  astonished  to  find  how  high  is  the  price  of  butter,  and 
the  question  arises  in  my  mind,  Why  do  not  more  women 
go  in  for  dairying  ?  It  would  be  mere  play  for  a  woman 
in  this  country,  with  all  its  facilities,  compared  with  the 
task  I  undertook  and  carried  out  successfully  for  four 
years  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  I  think  that  a  woman 
in  the  United  States  beginning  such  a  business  could  well 
apply  my  experience. 

It  is  a  most  healthful  as  well  as  interesting  and  possi- 
ble occupation  for  an  ambitious  woman,  and  one  she  can 
easily  manage,  and  manage  better  than  a  man  can,  for 
there  is  so  much  detail  work  about  it — such  things  as 
women  contend  with  in  housekeeping — things  so  small, 
indeed,  that  men  overlook  them.  In  fact,  speaking  only 
a  few  days  since  with  an  expert  who  carries  on  this  busi- 
ness, managing  one  of  the  largest  creameries  in  Connecti- 
cut, I  asked  the  question  : 

"  Do  you  think  a  woman  could  make  a  financial  success 
of  the  dairy  business  here  in  the  United  States  ? " 

He  replied  :     "Yes,  I  do,  for  I  know  a  woman — Mrs.  E. 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  305 

M.  Jones,  of  Brockville,  Ontario — who  has  made  a  success 
of  it,  and  many  men  have  failed." 

I  had  many  difficulties  to  overcome  in  South  America 
which  would  not  appear  here.  Being  a  city-bred  Ameri- 
can girl  to  begin  with,  such  a  life  as  I  found  myself 
enjoying  was,  before  I  took  up  my  residence  in  the  Ar- 
gentine, as  sealed  knowledge  to  me.  Seeking  health  a 
hundred  miles  from  civilisation,  out  on  the  plains  in  a 
forgotten  corner  of  the  Province  of  Entre  Rios,  I  drifted 
into  the  "  cowgirl "  life  and  dairy  work  almost  without 
knowing  it,  and  soon  became  so  interested  that  all  else 
was  forgotten.  Some  six  months  ago  I  left  it,  having 
gained  health  and  an  experience  which  I  would  not  lose. 

Starting  with  fifty  cows  as  a  nucleus,  I  had  the  day  I 
left  over  one  thousand  milch  cows,  besides  many  calves, 
and  I  myself  superintended  all  the  dairy  work. 

There  was  a  fine  big  butter  factory,  a  separator-churn 
and  a  butter-worker,  run  by  steam — and  I  also  learned  to 
run  the  engine — and  an  ice  plant,  which  we  used  for  chill- 
ing the  cream  and  keeping  butter  until  shipping. 

Added  to  this  work,  there  was  the  overseeing  and  run- 
ning of  the  estancia  of  ten  thousand  acres,  with  over  four 
thousand  head  of  cattle  turned  loose  to  graze  over  the 
plains,  and  the  "  peones  " — workmen — for  help  must  be 
housed  and  paid,  a  large  estancia  requires  the  services  of 
a  great  many  men  and  women,  too.  Then  there  are  the 
"  rodeos,"  or  "  round-ups,"  which  cost  a  considerable  sum, 
one  way  and  another. 

As  fences  are  often  out  of  repair,  and  gates  always  left 
open,  unless  watched,  the  different  herds  belonging  to 
different  estancias  become  mixed,  and  can  only  be  separated 
by  driving  all  animals  together  and  then  sorting  them  by 
the  branding  marks.  The  process  of  branding  is  also 
attended  with  a  good  deal  of  cost,  and  for  all  these 


306  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

expenses  connected  with  the  estancia  I  made  the  butter 
pay  the  bills  and  a  good  deal  over. 

At  an  incredibly  early  hour  in  the  morning  I  would  hear 
the  herders  cry  out  over  the  camp,  and  would  know  that 
my  day's  work  had  begun.  Just  as  soon  as  our  great, 
bright  morning  star,  Lucero — Venus,  the  day  star- — would 
come  in  sight  my  men  were  out.  One  would  gather  in 
the  calves  from  their  pastures,  where  they  had  been  put 
the  night  before.  These  were  driven  into  their  pen,  a 
corner  fenced  off  in  the  great  corral,  constructed  of  the 
most  picturesquely  crooked  wooden  posts  ever  seen. 

In  the  meantime  two  other  men  would  have  been  to 
another  pasture  driving  up  the  cows.  When  the  calves 
were  well  fastened  in  the  cows  were  turned  into  the 
corral,  at  one  end  of  which  was  our  milking  place,  fenced 
off  from  the  main  corral  and  holding  some  fifty  cows  at 
once.  The  first  fifty  were  parted  and  driven  in  by  the 
herders,  who  were  on  horseback,  and  the  milkers  were 
then  ready  to  begin,  stools  tied  on,  and  pail  and  stick  in 
hand.  The  stick  is  used  to  hit  poor,  hungry  little  calves 
on  the  nose,  for  the  cows  were  trained  to  give  down  milk 
only  with  the  calf  ;  this,  of  course,  made  the  work  double, 
for  we  not  only  had  to  remember  each  cow,  but  each  calf, 
and  to  which  cow  it  belonged. 

Two  men  were  stationed  at  a  gate  in  the  pen,  and  as  I 
would  name  the  calves  required  they  hunted  them  out  and 
shoved  them  through  the  gate  to  their  mothers. 

Boys  employed  for  the  purpose  would  at  once  tie  the 
cow's  hind  legs  together,  and  as  soon  as  the  calf  had 
made  the  mother  give  down  her  milk  the  poor  little 
animal  was  given  a  sounding  whack  over  the  nose  and 
made  to  stand  by  and  see  himself  robbed  of  his  breakfast. 
The  boys  kept  cows  ready  ahead  for  the  milkers.  As 
soon  as  milked  the  cows  and  calves  were  run  through  into 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  307 

another  corral,  on  the  other  side  of  the  pen,  and  anothei 
fifty  rushed  in,  and  so  the  work  went  on  until  all  was  fin- 
ished. 

In  the  meantime  the  milk  was  being  carried  in  a  cart 
to  the  milkhouse.  Each  milker  was  paid  according  to  the 
amount  he  or  she  took  out,  at  the  rate  of  10  cents  paper 
for  fifteen  litres.  A  litre  is  a  very  little  cfver  a  quart,  and 
10  cents  paper  is  equal  to  about  three  cents  in  United 
States  money,  so  that  for  three,  or  at  most  four,  cents 
the  milkers  turned  in  eighteen  quarts  of  milk.  Of  course, 
it  was  to  the  milker's  interest  to  take  out  as  much  milk  as 
possible  and  to  care  for  it,  otherwise  the  milk  would  have 
been  left  for  the  calf,  or  a  cow  hard  to  milk  would 
have  been  dried  up  for  lack  of  thorough  milking.  Then, 
also,  milk  would  have  been  spilled  ;  but  in  this  way  every 
drop  meant  money  for  the  milker. 

Small  as  this  pay  seems,  good  milkers  made  good  wages 
on  a  large  ranch,  and  had  the  rest  of  the  day  to  them- 
selves. We  did  not  care  for  them  to  do  other  work,  as  it 
unfitted  the  hands  for  milking,  but  when  they  did  any 
extra  work  they  were  paid  extra  for  it.  They  are  a  lazy 
race,  however,  and  were  usually  content  to  "  sit  out "  the 
rest  of  the  day. 

Milking  done,  the  calves  were  then  separated  from  the 
mothers  by  the  men  on  horseback  and  taken  to  their  pas- 
tures, where,  with  the  exception  of  the  newly  born  ones, 
they  stayed  until  the  next  morning,  for  we  could  milk  but 
once  a  day  when  handling  so  many  cows.  As  soon  as  the 
milk  arrived  at  the  factory  it  was  at  once  run  through  the 
separator  and  the  cream  taken  out,  and  all  the  skim-milk 
was  fed  to  the  hogs. 

The  usual  afternoon  work,  after  doctoring  the  sick 
cattle,  tending  to  some  broken  leg  or  skinning  the  dead, 
was  breaking  wild  cows  ;  for,  in  connection  with  all  the 


3o8  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

rest,  we  were  constantly  taming  wild  animals,  and  this 
made  the  work  much  harder,  as  a  cow  that  was  being 
tamed  would  give  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  little  milk 
the  first  year.  We  kept  men  for  that  work,  but,  of  course, 
the  cows  turned  over  to  the  milkers  and  pronounced  tame 
were  by  no  means  as  docile  as  the  others,  and  it  was 
hard  for  the  milkers  to  handle  them. 

I  personally  attended  to  the  training  of  over  five  hun- 
dred cows — cows  that  had  never  felt  the  weight  of  a  strap, 
much  less  of  a  man's  hand.  Then  every  few  days  round- 
ups had  to  be  put  on,  and  all  newly  born  calves  and  their 
mothers  were  parted  and  sent  to  the  corral.  These,  for 
the  first  few  days,  gave  extra  trouble,  as  they  were  apt  to 
forget  what  was  wanted  of  them,  or  were  cross  over  new 
calves,  or  in  bad  condition,  so  that  each  day  brought  forth 
much  extra  work. 

Now,  if  this  business,  under  such  circumstances,  could 
be  made  profitable  in  South  America,  how  much  more 
could  it  be  made  to  pay  here,  where  one  handles  only 
tame  cattle  and  has  every  convenience  to  work  with  ? 
There  our  shelter  was  the  great  vault  above  us,  in  rain  or 
shine,  heat  or  cold.  On  frosty  mornings  the  milker's 
cold,  stiff  fingers  were  warmed  at  the  cow's  warm  udder. 
Animals  also  shielded  the  milkers  from  the  sun  or  rain,  as 
the  case  might  be  ;  shelter  for  the  animals  there  was  not. 

I  have  been  asked  what  step  it  is  necessary  for  a  woman 
to  take  in  establishing  a  dairy  that  is  to  be  carried  on  in 
a  thoroughly  business-like  way  and  to  a  financial  success. 
I  can  only  give  my  opinion,  as  based  on  my  experience  in 
this  work  that  I  carried  on  in  South  America.  I  should 
advise  a  woman  to  go  into  it  in  a  small  way,  say,  with  ten 
good  cows,  which  would  cost  on  an  average  $30  each.  A 
cow  should  average  ten  quarts  of  milk  a  day,  or  one 
pound  of  butter  a  day.  About  twenty  acres  of  good  land 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  309 

should  be  ample,  although  one  cannot  say  exactly,  for 
years  differ.  If  a  woman  wishes  to  take  an  active  part, 
one  good  man  at  $35  a  month  should  be  help  enough.  He 
could  attend  to  milking  and  the  heavy  part  of  butter- 
making.  The  skim-milk  would  feed  the  small  calves, 
which  it  would  be  advisable  to  raise,  and  in  that  way 
slowly  increase  the  business.  A  ready  market  can  always 
be  found  for  first-class  creamery  butter.  With  the 
exception  of  three  months  in  the  year  butter  ought  to 
bring  35  cents  a  pound. 

Steam-power  would  not  really  be  needed,  though  if  the 
business  is  carried  out  on  a  moderately  large  scale  it 
pays  to  have  every  convenience.  Separators,  butter-work- 
ers and  churns  can  be  run  by  hand,  and  even  in  places 
where  some  sixty  cows  are  kept  the  "  deep-setting  system  " 
is  used  in  place  of  a  separator. 

In  winter  the  work  would  grow  heavy,  and  probably 
more  help  would  be  needed,  for  the  cows  must  be  fed. 
With  so  few  cows,  even  up  to  one  hundred  and  more, 
milking  would  take  place  twice  daily.  In  case  of  ten  cows, 
it  would  be  possible  to  churn  twice  a  week.  Two  women 
could  run  such  a  business  well,  and  do  some  chicken  busi- 
ness in  with  it — they  would  go  well  together. 

A  good,  clean  housekeeper  and  manager  ought  to  be 
particularly  adapted  to  this  work,  for  there  is  really  noth- 
ing hard  about  it. 

A  large  barn  is  required,  with  places  for  milking  and 
feeding,  also  room  for  plenty  of  winter  food  of  all  kinds. 
A  big,  airy  room  for  milk  is  also  necessary,  and  if  the 
"  deep-set  system "  is  used,  a  springhouse  would  be 
required.  One  good-sized  churn  and  butter-worker,  and 
a  separator  and  a  table  for  forming  butter  into  required 
shape,  complete  the  equipment,  There  are  many  well- 


3io  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

written  books  on  this  subject,  where  one  can  find  all  points 
discussed  and  gain  many  helpful  ideas. 

A  woman  could  by  dairy  work  earn  a  fair  living  and 
make  it  pay  in  a  small  way,  and,  taking  into  consideration 
the  interesting  and  healthful  work,  it  ought  to  attract 
more  women.  To  a  person  fond  of  animals  this  work 
would  be  of  endless  enjoyment,  for,  though  the  cow  is  gen- 
erally considered  a  rather  stupid  creature,  I  found  that 
she  makes  a  most  interesting  study,  and  is  as  intelligent 
as  the  horse  and  quicker  to  learn  what  is  required  of  her. 

Woman's  instinct  is  of  the  greatest  use  in  dealing  with 
a  cow,  for  kind  treatment  tells  more  in  the  profits  than  all 
else.  A  cow  cannot  be  forced  to  give  milk,  nor,  under 
bad  treatment,  will  she  have  the  milk  to  give.  Woman  is 
supposed  to  possess  endless  patience,  and  in  this  business 
patience  will  be  required  more  than  anything  else,  and  if 
continued  the  results  will  be  satisfactory. 

Granting  a  woman  has  a  bit  of  land,  the  capital  required 
to  open  a  dairy  is  not  so  great  ;  $1,000  should  cover  all 
necessaries  and  start  her  well.  It  is  a  business  in  which 
it  pays  to  look  after  little  things,  and  these  a  woman 
would  notice  sooner  than  a  man  would.  It  is  also  a  busi- 
ness that  pays  at  once,  and  after  the  first  outlay  requires 
little  more  money.  Unlike  other  work,  which  takes  a 
woman  from  her  home,  it  can  make  home  life  possible  in 
every  way,  because  it  is  carried  on  under  her  own  "  vine 
and  fig  tree." 

IONE  A.  VAN  GORDER. 


A  PROSPEROUS  SHEEP-RAISER. 

A  VIRGINIA  woman  who  owns  a  small  piece  of  land  has 
become  interested  in  the  business  of  raising  sheep.  She 
started  on  a  capital  of  $25,  and  with  this  sum  she  pur- 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  311 

chased  sheep  at  $3  a  head.  She  raised  as  many  as  she 
could  care  for  on  the  land,  disposing  of  the  rest  as  soon 
as  they  were  old  enough.  She  devoted  about  an  hour 
each  day  to  their  care,  and  paid  a  boy  a  small  sum  a 
week  to  keep  the  sheds  in  order.  She  is  now  able  after 
five  years  to  clear  over  $450  annually. 


WOMEN  FARMERS. 

Some  Are  Born  to  Agriculture. — Others  Have  Agriculture 

Thrust  Upon  Them,  and  Many  Now  Seek  It  as  a 

Promising  and  Attractive  Livelihood. 

MRS.  VAN  GORDER  has  told  of  dairy  work  in  South 
America  in  the  preceding  paper,  narrated  her  own  inter- 
esting experiences,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  women 
should  do  well  in  this  occupation  in  America.  Whether 
this  opinion  proceeds  entirely  from  her  own  success  or  from 
actual  knowledge  of  what  has  been  accomplished  in  Amer- 
ica, it  is,  nevertheless,  entirely  correct. 

The  number  of  women  who  are  carrying  on  general 
farming  with  good  sense  and  equally  good  results  in  this 
country  is  remarkable.  No  doubt,  many  of  these  are  the 
widows  of  practical  farmers,  and  they  remain  on  the  old 
homestead  and,  with  the  aid  of  their  sons  or  farm  labourers, 
go  on  with  an  enterprise  in  which  they  shared  largely  be- 
fore they  were  left  alone,  and  with  whose  previous  success 
they  had  much  to  do.  I  am  told  that  the  subscription 
lists  of  that  widely  circulated  newspaper  The  New  York 
Weekly  Tribune  show  how  numerous  are  these  women  in 
American  agriculture.  They  are  found  in  every  State  in 
the  Union.  Government  statistics  might  make  the  actual 
number  a  little  more  apparent,  but  the  general  fact  is  well 


3i2  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

known  that  women  farmers  exist  in  America  by  the  thou- 
sand. 

One  farm  manager  who  has  shown  herself  competent 
is  Mrs.  Richard  King,  of  Texas,  widow  of  the  cattle  king, 
who  died  in  1885  in  the  city  of  Galveston.  Captain  Rich- 
ard King  was  a  pioneer  of  Texas,  a  scourge  of  outlaws,  a 
steamboat  man,  owner  of  the  Santa  Gertrudes  ranch,  and 
an  excellent  manager  of  business  affairs.  He  left  at  his 
death  a  property  of  over  1,300,000  acres  of  land  in  the  ex- 
treme southern  end  of  Texas,  southwest  of  Corpus  Christi, 
and  at  one  time,  it  is  said,  no  less  than  500,000  cattle 
ranged  over  this  estate.  His  widow  has  succeeded  to  the 
vast  interests  which  her  husband  founded,  and  she  man- 
ages them  with  the  skill  and  shrewdness  of  a  born  busi- 
ness woman.  It  does  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  any  other  wo- 
man in  America  to  preside  over  such  an  agricultural  estab- 
lishment as  this,  but  she  does  not  bring  to  its  manage- 
ment a  greater  degree  of  sound  ability  than  thousands  of 
other  American  women  possess.  It  is  not,  however,  of 
such  great  enterprises  that  this  paper  is  intended  to 
speak.  The  woman  farmers  of  the  country  have,  as  a 
rule,  a  property  of  not  more  than  from  75  to  200  acres 
each,  and  there  are  few  cases  in  which  their  management 
is  not  successful. 

Besides  those  who  have  grown  up  in  a  farming  commu- 
nity, there  are  many  other  women  who  have  undertaken 
farm  and  dairy  work  without  any  previous  acquaintance 
with  the  business,  solely  as  a  means  of  support,  the  ven- 
ture being  made  necessary  by  some  incident  in  their  fam- 
ily affairs.  They  have  taken  to  farming  because  they 
love  the  fields,  the  fresh  air  of  the  country,  the  freedom 
and  the  feeling  of  proprietorship  which  the  possession  of  a 
farm  imparts. 

Among  the  thousand  instances  which  might  be  cited, 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  313 

one  will  answer  as  indicative  of  the  rest.  Miss  Anna  M. 
Letchworth,  formerly  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  a  member  of  one 
of  the  oldest  and  best-known  families  in  the  State,  of 
good  position,  decided  after  her  father's  death  to  take  a 
farm  in  her  native  county  of  Cayuga,  N.  Y.,  and  convert 
it  into  a  model  dairy.  Three  years  ago  she  began.  She 
continued  to  make  butter  for  only  a  few  months.  The 
low  price  of  butter  and  the  distance  of  the  farm  from  a 
large  city  rendered  butter-making  unprofitable.  Next, 
the  experiment  was  tried  of  sending  cream  from  the  farm 
to  the  city  of  Auburn,  about  twenty  miles  away,  but  Au- 
burn people  failed  to  appreciate  the  rich,  heavy  Jersey 
cream  enough  to  pay  an  extra  price  for  it.  A  milk  route 
in  Auburn  was  then  established,  the  milk  being  bottled 
and  sent  to  Auburn  twice  a  day  and  delivered  in  her  own 
wagons,  a  really  superior  article.  This  plan  might  have 
succeeded  if  honest  and  competent  men  could  have  been 
found  to  serve  the  routes.  This  adventure  was  given  up, 
and  now  the  farm  sells  its  milk  directly  to  the  Philadelphia 
Supply  Company.  The  farm  has  now  become  a  remunera- 
tive property — at  any  rate,  sufficiently  so  for  the  purposes 
of  support  and  comfort.  The  farm  comprises  two  hun- 
dred acres,  about  equally  divided  between  rich  meadow 
lands  in  the  valley  of  the  Owasco  Inlet  and  wooded  hill- 
side. The  yearly  overflow  of  the  inlet  gives  especial  fer- 
tility to  the  bottom  lands  and  the  cows  always  have  fine 
pasturage.  During  the  heat  of  July  and  August,  the  cows, 
about  sixty  in  number,  are  kept  in  darkened  stables,  free 
from  flies,  where  each  has  a  basin  of  fresh  water  by  its 
manger  and  a  small  box  of  salt  to  taste  at  will,  and  is  fed 
ensilage,  grain  and  hay  in  a  balanced  ration.  The  cows 
are  the  pets  of  the  family,  and  much  time  is  spent  in  the 
stables  by  all  who  are  members  of  the  household. 

Modern  methods  are  employed  in  the  dairy.     As  soon 


314  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

as  drawn,  the  milk  is  taken  to  the  milk-room,  weighed,  so 
that  a  record  of  each  cow's  milk  may  be  kept,  and  strained 
into  a  Star  aerator,  or  cooler,  immediately.  The  animal 
heat  is  thus  quickly  removed,  the  temperature  being 
reduced  to  about  40  degrees.  This  arrests  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  harmful  bacilli  and  keeps  the  milk  sweet.  Dur- 
ing the  intense  heat  of  the  summer  of  1898  no  complaint 
was  made  of  the  sweetness  of  the  milk  from  this  dairy, 
and,  in  fact,  the  president  of  the  Philadelphia  Milk  Supply 
Company  wrote  that  Miss  Letchworth  had  been  able  to 
refute  the  theory  that  Jersey  milk  would  not  bear  trans- 
portation. 

At  the  proper  season  a  large  crop  of  hay  has  to  be  cut 
and  cared  for,  and  later  the  farmhands  cut  the  corn  and 
fill  the  silo,  the  latter  being  an  event  of  great  interest  and 
requiring  careful  management.  Hay  and  corn  are  the 
principal  crops,  and  little  else  is  attempted. 

During  the  three  years  of  Miss  Letchworth's  manage- 
ment it  has  been  necessary  to  enlarge  and  repair  the 
barns  and  replace  expensive  machinery  and  implements, 
which  had  been  neglected  by  paid  foremen,  and  to  do  a 
great  deal  else  to  correct  the  errors  of  the  workmen. 
When  once  the  farm  is  in  comparative  order  Miss  Letch- 
worth  expects  that  the  enterprise  will  be  financially  suc- 
cessful. For  the  present,  her  activity  certainly  provides 
a  comfortable  home  for  herself  and  others,  with  wood, 
milk  and  vegetables  in  abundance.  Three  workmen, 
with  families,  live  upon  the  place  in  comfortable  cottages, 
who  have  their  house  rent,  fuel,  milk  and  garden  plots 
free,  in  addition  to  their  monthly  wages. 

A  little  capital  is  necessarily  required  for  engaging  in 
dairy  work,  and  this  must  be  obtained  either  from  previ- 
ous earnings  or  in  some  other  way.  With  such  capital, 
with  good  management,  careful  study  of  methods  and 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  315 

proper  industry  and  economy,  there  seems  to  be  no  rea- 
son why  women  should  not  succeed  in  dairy  work  in 
America. 

VIRGINIA  H.  HALL. 


MARKET  GARDENS  PROFITABLE. 

MARKET  gardening  is  said  to  be  a  suitable  occupation 
for  women.  A  man  of  experience  in  that  line,  however, 
says  that  it  should  not  be  attempted  with  a  capital  of  less 
than  $300  per  acre  to  expend. 

The  work  is  heavy,  but  the  woman  who  understands 
the  business  need  do  little  more  than  act  as  overseer. 
Men  can  be  hired  to  do  the  heavy  work  and  the  woman 
may  manage  matters.  So  many  women  are  successful  in 
the  raising  of  flowers — in  fact,  with  some  of  them  all 
green  things  seem  to  grow  like  magic  under  their  touch — 
that  to  women  of  this  kind  market  gardening  should 
be  a  great  pleasure,  besides  a  source  of  ic^ome. 

A  ride  out  through  the  market  gardens  of  Long  Island 
would  give  one  who  is  fond  of  plants  a  desire  to  try  her 
hand  at  this  sort  of  work,  so  inviting  does  it  look. 

The  raiser  of  so-called  garden  truck  is  usually  not  a 
man  of  high  intelligence — perhaps  a  simple  labourer  who 
works  from  a  few  traditions.  Such  men  can  be  hired  to  do 
the  severe  work,  and  will  do  it  well,  and  a  woman  of  brains 
and  energy  may  supply  the  motive  power,  putting  in  new 
ideas,  thereby  producing  greater  results. 

Let  no  woman  think,  however,  that  anything  can  De 
accomplished  in  this  line  without  first  becoming  fully 
informed  as  to  all  the  details  and  necessities  of  the  under- 
taking. Soil  is  to  be  studied,  and  drainage  also  should  be 
considered.  Fertilizing  is  an  important  factor.  Glass 


3i6  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

houses  are  needed  as  a  protection  to  young  plants  that 
are  raised  from  the  seed,  which  must  be  well  under  way 
by  the  early  spring. 

RUTH  TITUS. 


CASH  IN  COWS,  PIGS,  HENS. 

One  Woman's  Experience.-— Janet  E.  R.  Rees  Gives  a  Humour- 
ous Story  of  Her  Real  Success  In  Practical  Agriculture. 

IT  so  happened  that  I  unexpectedly  came  into  control 
of  a  large  household  living  in  the  country.  The  house 
was  pleasantly  situated,  the  locality  was  delightful,  the 
scenery  inspiring  ;  but  no  sooner  did  I  turn  into  the  con- 
sideration of  the  rear  portions  of  the  place  than  my  soul 
was  seized  with  dismay.  In  all  directions  neglect  was 
only  too  obvious.  Over  two  acres  of  land  presented  the 
wildest,  most  overgrown  appearance  ;  rank  grass,  weeds, 
briers  and  vines  of  every  kind  flourished  at  their  own 
sweet  will,  while  a  barn  and  deserted  chicken-yard  formed 
the  background  of  wild  blackberry  and  raspberry  bushes, 
vying  with  each  other  in  rampant  growth,  and  a  henhouse 
was  the  resort  of  all  the  pigeons  in  the  neighbourhood. 

"  How  much,"  I  asked  the  housekeeper,  "  does  your 
milk  cost  you  a  month  ?  " 

I  was  almost  stunned  when  she  named  the  sum. 

"  Why,"  I  said,  "  with  two  or  three  acres  of  land  going 
to  waste,  do  you  pay  such  prices  as  that  for  wholesale 
consumption  ?  " 

I  set  about  making  inquiries,  and  found  that  farmers 
all  around  were  prepared  to  furnish  milk  at  4  1-2  cents  a 
quart,  making  a  reasonable  profit.  Instantly  I  realised 
that  two  or  three  cows  would  soon  pay  far  more  than 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  31? 

their  cost  where  the  market  was  sure.  I  investigated  the 
barn,  which  was  small,  but  had  capabilities  of  expansion. 
Soon  1  had  estimated  upon  stalls,  an  enlarged  cow-yard, 
etc.,  and,  finding  the  old  henhouse  still  convertible  into 
something  respectable,  I  started  my  carpenter  on  the 
work  and  soon  had  the  satisfaction,  of  resting  my  eyes 
upon  converted  outbuildings. 

This  seemed  very  much  as  if  I  had  begun  my  opera- 
tions at  the  wrong  end,  but  such  was  not  the  case.  The 
purchase  of  the  first  cow  was  a  great  event,  and  the  arri- 
val of  the  animal  threw  the  household  into  a  state  of 
excitement.  The  utility  man  knew  something  of  farming, 
and  my  carpenter  was  an  erratic  little  German,  who  knew 
"  everything  about  everything."  I  talked  with  them  both, 
and  drove  all  over  the  country  getting  "  points."  I  got  a 
practical  gardener  to  look  at  the  estate,  and  after  much 
preliminary  conversation  he  taught  me  a  good  deal.  One 
portion  of  the  grounds,  south  by  north,  he  told  me,  would 
make  an  excellent  vegetable  and  flower  garden. 

A  vision  of  peas  and  roses  at  once  arose,  and  I  decided 
upon  straight  walks  lined  with  rose  trees,  and  squares  of 
cabbages,  asparagus  and  beets.  I  revealed  my  ideas  to  my 
prosaic  adviser,  who  put  the  brakes  upon  my  imagination 
by  the  calm  words,  "  Plough  and  harrow."  This  brought 
me  back  to  the  consideration  of  expense.  "  Plough  ! 
Harrow  !  "  How  was  it  possible  ? 

"  Well,  you  may  have  one  team  of  me,  ma'am,  and  my 
man  can  come  for  a  day  and  turn  up  this  'ere  soil,  if  you 
have  the  weeds  and  briers  cut  down  first." 

The  said  briers  were  as  tall  as  I  am. 

"  Have  'em  rooted  out  and  burned,"  continued  my  ad- 
viser. "Then  we'll  plough  up,  and  you  turn  a  good  load 
of  manure  over  this  land,  and  let  it  be  till  spring.  That's 
the  whole  of  it." 


3i8  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

To  be  brief,  at  the  cost  of  about  $5,  and  an  additional 
$3  for  manure,  this  was  done,  and  done  before  the  frosts 
of  late  November  set  in,  but,  urged  on  by  the  zeal  of  the 
amateur,  and  not  content  with  the  sensible,  slow-going 
counsel  of  experience,  I  decided  to  have  the  sowing  done 
at  once.  Of  course,  it  was  a  failure,  but,  having  satisfied 
my  zeal  by  sprinkling  spinach  seeds  in  furrows,  I  left  the 
question  of  the  garden  to  the  spring  and  turned  my 
attention  to  the  cows.  The  size  of  the  household  de- 
manding nearly  thirty  quarts  of  milk  daily,  a  second 
milch  cow  was  necessary.  Here  came  in  some  delight- 
fully funny  results  of  inexperience.  I  travelled  many 
miles  and  interviewed  many  farmers,  and  stilt  more 
farmers'  wives,  and  made  acquaintance  with  the  oddest 
samples  of  human  nature,  and  at  last  became  the  happy 
possessor  of  a  real  Jersey,  which,  from  that  day  to  this, 
has  been  a  joy,  and  whose  calves  have  been  a  solid 
source  of  satisfaction  and  revenue. 

The  barn  thus  auspiciously  occupied,  the  milk  question 
being  so  far  settled,  my  mind  naturally  turned  to  the 
other  live-stock.  At  once  I  concentrated  it  upon  pigs 
and  chickens.  A  long  life  is  required  to  do  justice  to 
pigs  and  chickens.  I  read  several  volumes  about  pigs. 
I  consulted  every  farmer  for  miles  around,  and  worried 
all  my  friends.  One  of  the  latter,  a  very  long-suffering 
person,  finally  told  me  how  to  acquire  possession  of  the 
right  thing  in  pigs,  by  writing  to  a  man  in  Vermont. 
The  correspondence  was  lively,  and  resulted  in  my  secur- 
ing four  ideal  pigs,  about  two  months  old,  which 
travelled,  doubtless  with  much  confusion  of  ideas,  safely 
to  my  door. 

They  were  beautiful  little  pigs.  I  have  nothing 
against  them,  except  that  they  finally  grew  up  and 
became  very  much  larger  than  was  consistent  with  poetic 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  319 

ideas  in  regard  to  them.  However,  as  porkers  they  were 
satisfactory  and  turned  finally  into  succulent  hams  and 
tender  ribs,  supported  by  sage  and  onions  from  the  gar- 
den. 

As  for  chickens,  nothing  less  than  pure  white  Leghorns 
would  content  me.  My  reading  with  regard  to  chickens 
was  appalling.  I  was  ignorant  enough  to  suppose  they 
always  did  it.  I  found  from  farm  journals  that  some  did 
and  some  did  not,  but  that  white  Leghorns  were  those 
that  always  did.  Indeed,  one  enthusiast  declared  that 
they  always  laid  three  eggs  in  two  days.  A  rapid  calcu- 
lation proved  that  the  possession  of  white  Leghorns  must 
lead  to  a  fortune.  It  was  difficult  to  secure  them  in  my 
part  of  the  country,  but,  after  much  harrowing  ex- 
perience, I  heard  of  some  twenty-five  at  an  average  cost 
of  $i  each,  which  I  immediately  became  crazy  to  secure. 

Many  a  time  later  I  wished  that  my  $25  had  gone  in 
another  direction,  and  yet,  after  the  lapse  of  time,  I  am 
by  no  means  so  sure  I  did  badly,  not  because  I  kept  pure 
white  Leghorns,  but  because  they  became  profitable  after 
I  ceased  to  keep  them  apart.  Mixed  with  the  other 
breeds,  their  eggs  became  multitudinous,  and  as  table  pro- 
viders they  were  excellent  in  the  second  generation.  I 
say  this  with  due  respect  for  all  chicken  specialists  the 
land  over,  and  say  it  modestly,  merely  as  a  record  of  ex- 
perience. One  fashion  my  white  Leghorns  had  was  of 
dying  without  preliminary  effort.  They  would  be  run- 
ning about,  clucking  and  pecking,  like  reasonable  hens, 
one  moment  and  the  next  would  drop  over  dead.  At 
first,  this  agitated  me  profoundly,  but  later  on  I  took  it 
calmly,  and  then  they  left  off  doing  it.  Why  I  have 
never  discovered — perhaps  because  they  became  accli- 
mated. I  will  just  put  it  on  record  that  for  the  amateur 
farmer  I  consider  common  mixed  barnyard  fowls  the 


320  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

best  investment.  Chickens  are  like  children — they  are 
robust  in  proportion  as  they  belong  to  common  stock. 
If  they  are  too  carefully  reared  and  separated  they 
develop  nervous  troubles  of  their  own. 

In  the  first  six  months  of  my  experiment  the  hen-yard 
was  a  constant  source  of  expense,  and  no  profit,  but  after 
I  left  off  caring  about  them,  the  hens  plucked  up  courage 
and  began  to  lay,  and  have  continued  in  the  path  of 
virtue  ever  since.  But  I  no  longer  have  pure  white  Leg- 
horns. A  most  unfashionable  set  of  feathered  bipeds 
supplies  the  needs  of  the  household.  My  farm  was 
fairly  started  with  three  cows,  six  pigs  and  some  fifty 
chickens,  but,  ambitious  still,  I  was  drawn  to  further  in- 
vestment in  the  shape  of  an  incubator,  which,  it  is  almost 
needless  to  say,  did  not  incubate. 

An  entire  book  might  be  written  upon  the  subject  of 
this  experience.  It  still  brings  remorse  to  my  heart  to 
recall  the  many  half-dead  chickens  that  were  the  net 
result  of  my  rashly  undertaking  to  supplant  the  good  old 
hen  in  her  domain.  It  requires  scientific  knowledge  to  do 
that  properly,  and  I  finally  gave  it  up  and  contented  my- 
self with  setting  any  hen  who  showed  conscientious 
family  ambitions. 

I  have  never  had  any  reason  to  regret  my  somewhat 
sudden  undertaking.  The  household  accounts  show  a 
large  margin  in  my  favour.  Even  the  sickness  and  death 
of  a  favourite  cow  did  not  tip  the  scales  against  me,  and 
the  vegetable  garden  yielded  me  seventy-five  bushels  of 
potatoes  at  a  time  when  the  market  price  was  $1.14  a 
bushel,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  head  of  celery  between 
Thanksgiving  and  Christmas,  to  say  nothing  of  such 
common  things  as  cauliflowers,  beets,  cabbages  and 
brussels  sprouts.  It  is  well  enough  for  small  families  to 
assert  that  in  home  gardening  every  tomato  costs  a 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  321 

douar,  but  that  is  because  there  is  so  much  waste.  Let 
the  household  only  be  large  enough  to  provide  a  ready 
market  for  everything,  and  a  vegetable  garden  and  a 
home  farm  are  the  most  profitable  of  all  enterprises, 
besides  being  essentially  healthful  and  amusing 

JANET  E.  RUNTZ  REES. 


STOCK  BREEDING. 

ENGLISH  women  have  become  successful  in  branches  of 
industry  not  yet  extensively  taken  up  by  their  American 
sisters. 

In  one  of  the  leading  societies  for  breeding  pedigree 
cattle  the  prizes  won  by  women  were  out  of  all  proportion 
to  their  numbers.  Although  they  constituted  only  13  per 
cent,  of  the  members,  they  secured  30  per  cent,  of  the 
prizes.  The  women  owners  manage  their  own  herds. 

In  fancy  dog  breeding  women  are  no  less  successful, 
and  this  branch  pays  better  than  cattle  raising.  At  the 
show  of  the  Ladies'  Kennel  Association  in  London  re- 
cently nearly  every  breed  of  dogs  was  exhibited.  Two  of 
the  best  modern  breeds  of  beagles  and  bulldogs  were 
raised  by  women.  Teams  of  bloodhounds  and  the  finest 
St.  Bernards  in  the  world  are  credited  to  women  who 
have  made  a  study  and  business  of  the  industry.  One 
of  these  women  never  exhibits  a  dog  worth  less  than 
$5,000. 

Horses  are  not  bred  to  any  extent  by  women,  although 
there  are  some  well-known  pony  breeders,  but  cats  are  a 
remunerative  branch  of  business,  even  if  the  prices  are 
not  so  good  as  those  obtained  for  dogs. 

In  America  the  raising  and  training  of  fast  horses  by 
women  is  coming  rapidly  into  vogue.  Mrs.  W.  E.  D. 


322  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Stokes,  of  New  York,  has  entered  into  the  business  on  her 
own  account.  A  few  years  ago  she  bought  a  farm  near 
Lexington,  and  as  part  of  her  first  stock  paid  $10,000 
for  one  noted  horse.  Since  that  time  she  has  increased 
her  stock  to  such  an  extent  that  the  farm  promises  to  be 
one  of  the  best  known  in  the  country. 

For  the  last  two  seasons  a  number  of  New  England 
women  have  devoted  themselves  to  the  training  of  their 
own  horses,  and  have  also  driven  them  in  the  circuit  races. 

Mrs.  Sarah  E.  Crosby,  of  East  Brewster,  Mass.,  has  an 
extensive  establishment  at  Cape  Cod,  where  she  has  a 
number  of  both  driving  and  trotting  horses.  Mrs.  Wood- 
cock, of  Ripley,  Me.,  has  always  a  number  of  horses  in 
training  at  her  farm  in  that  place. 


AN  AUTHORITY  ON  FRUIT-DRYING. 

MRS.  SARAH  MOULTRIE,  living  near  San  Jose,  Cal.,  is 
an  authority  on  the  drying  and  curing  of  apricots  and 
prunes.  Each  season  she  oversees  the  preparing  for 
market  of  many  tons  of  these  varieties  of  fruit.  She  has 
passed  through  all  the  principal  changes  of  California, 
and  has  done  much  of  the  work  both  of  heart  and  hand 
that  falls  to  a  woman  in  a  new  country.  Mrs.  Moultrie, 
whose  parents  were  slaveholders  of  Kentucky,  was  ac- 
customed to  affluence,  and  the  long  trip  across  the  plains 
was  for  her  a  hard  one.  This  long  and  perilous  trip  filled 
her  with  a  desire  to  own  a  home,  and  she  still  possesses 
the  many  acres  bought  in  those  early  days  for  almost 
nothing,  and  which,  now  bordering  upon  San  Jose",  have 
become  extremely  valuable. 


THE  REALM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  323 


HORTICULTURAL  FIELDS. 

IT  has  been  prophesied  that  the  next  decade  will  find 
among  the  leading  florists  and  fruit-growers  the  names  of 
many  women,  while  women  also  will  largely  compose  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  workers  in  horticultural  industries. 
In  this  field,  as  yet,  they  are  practically  untried,  for  the  in- 
dividual success,  here  and  there,  of  a  few  cannot  be  taken 
as  a  positive  result  to  be  obtained  by  the  many.  Two 
sisters  in  California  have  bought  a  fine  tract  of  land,  and 
will  put  it  to  the  use  of  growing  rose-bushes.  An  Ohio 
woman  tells  of  her  success  in  strawberry-growing.  An- 
other woman  owns  and  manages  a  "  floral  colony,"  while 
another  woman  in  South  Carolina  has  built  up  a  profitable 
and  extensive  trade  in  bulbs  among  Northern  florists. 


GOLDFISH  "FARMING." 

THE  "  fish  ladies  "  is  the  title  frequently  and  admiringly 
bestowed  upon  two  young  girls  who  move  constantly  in 
the  best  society  circles  of  Auburn  Park.  The  rearing  of 
goldfish  is  the  unusual  mode  of  breadwinning  hit  upon  by 
these  young  women,  and  they  find  that  the  occupation 
proves  more  and  more  satisfactory  and  remunerative  as 
time  goes  on.  At  first  the  goldfish  were  taken  from  the 
little  parlour  aquarium  and  put  in  a  tub,  more  and  more 
being  added  gradually,  until  now  there  are  a  number  of 
large  tubs  in  a  little  glass  house  out  in  the  back  yard  and 
over  one  thousand  fish  undergoing  propagation,  The 
work  of  rearing  the  fish  is  pleasant  and  lucrative, 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS 

INSURE  YOUR  LIFE;  WHY  NOT? 

Women  Can  Reach  Women  Better  Than  Men. — An  Almost 
Unworked  Field  in  Life  Assurance. 

OF  the  many  avenues  of  work  now  open  to  women  I 
know  of  none  which  to  a  woman  of  tact  and  perseverance 
affords  so  broad  a  field  for  enterprise  as  that  of  life  insur- 
ance. It  is  one  also  as  yet  comparatively  unworked. 
Men  confine  their  soliciting  almost  exclusively  to  men. 
Possibly  they  may  think  the  incentive  greater  for  a  man 
to  insure  his  life,  but  it  is  more  probable  that  the  diffi- 
culty of  securing  an  audience  with  a  woman  is  the  chief 
reason  why  men  do  not  seek  feminine  clients. 

Men  can  be  approached  in  their  places  of  business  or 
in  their  clubs,  but  a  woman  in  the  majority  of  cases  must 
be  approached  in  the  exclusiveness  of  her  own  home. 

When  one  thinks  of  the  magnitude  of  life  insurance 
companies,  of  their  combined  wealth — one  company,  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  alone  has  in  force  more 
than  $150,000,000  in  business — and  that  the  bulk  of  this 
vast  business  is  carried  on  on  the  lives  of  men,  and  has  been 
written  by  men,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  much  there 
is  left  for  women  to  accomplish  in  writing  life  insurance 
on  the  lives  of  women. 

When  women  have  been  the  beneficiaries  of  millions  of 
dollars  in  life  insurance,  should  they  not  be  interested  in 
that  which  has  given  them  such  strong  proofs  of  its  real 
value  ?  Can  a  widow  left  with  a  family,  and  having  been, 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      325 

through  her  husband's  forethought,  provided  for  by  his 
life  insurance,  do  better  than  follow  the  example  set  by 
her  husband,  the  example  by  which  she  has  profited,  and 
reinvest  a  small  portion  of  this  money  in  an  insurance  on 
her  own  life  for  her  children  ? 

In.  so  doing  she  is  making  provision  for  them  should 
they  be  deprived  of  her  care  before  they  are  old  enough 
to  look  out  for  themselves  ;  and  she  is  also  making  for 
herself  a  safe  investment,  which  will  be  returned  to  her 
should  she  live.  She  realises  the  power  of  money,  and  is 
just  as  anxious  for  her  children's  welfare  as  was  the 
husband  and  father.  And  why,  then,  is  she  not  approached 
on  this  subject  ?  Because  men  feel  a  delicacy  in  calling 
on  women,  and  the  few  women  in  the  business  can  reach 
a  comparatively  small  number.  The  field,  however,  is 
not  limited  to  the  women  who  have  been  the  beneficiaries 
of  life  insurance,  by  any  means. 

There  are  many  women  who  command  good  salaries  as 
teachers,  trained  nurses,  buyers  for  department  stores,  etc., 
to  say  nothing  of  the  many  who  are  in  the  business  for  them- 
selves ;  and  how  many  of  these  have  others  depending  on 
them,  for  whom  a  life  insurance  ought  to  be  secured  ? 
Others  having  no  one  dependent  on  them  might  be  inter- 
ested in  the  endowment  forms  of  life  insurance,  through 
which,  by  investing  a  small  amount  annually,  during  a  lim- 
ited number  of  their  productive  years,  they  save  up  a 
certain  sum  of  money  which  cannot  be  dissipated,  but 
from  which  they  themselves  derive  the  benefit.  And  there 
are  women  of  wealth  who  wish  at  their  death  to  leave  an 
endowment  to  a  church  or  an  institution,  and  who  would 
be  glad  to  know  of  the  various  propositions  insurance 
companies  offer,  and  of  the  immediate  settlement,  unlike 
the  rest  of  the  estate,  settled  without  red  tape  and  out  of 
court.  So,  with  the  many  incentives  women  have  to 


326  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

prompt  their  insuring,  many  women  ought  to  find  lucrative 
employment  as  solicitors. 

It  is  a  business,  however,  which  requires  some  ability, 
plenty  of  tact,  and  a  lot  of  perseverance.  One  must  go 
about  it  systematically.  Map  out  your  line  of  work  ; 
think  of  those  to  whom  insurance  ought  to  appeal ;  decide 
which  of  the  various  plans  you  have  would  interest  most 
the  women  on  whom  you  think  of  calling.  The  fact  of 
being  a  woman  need  in  no  way  interfere  with  one's  success 
or  in  getting  a  contract  with  a  company,  for  I  believe 
insurance  companies  give  as  liberal  contracts  to  women 
as  to  men. 

No  capital  is  required  ;  one's  time  is  one's  own,  and  she 
who  has  the  necessary  qualifications  and  will  devote  from 
six  to  seven  hours  a  day  to  the  business  should  reap  a 
handsome  income.  In  this,  as  in  any  other  calling,  one 
must  remember  that  old  saying,  "  Success  depends  on 
knowing  how  long  it  takes  to  succeed." 

To  illustrate  the  interest  which  has  been  awakened 
among  women  and  the  success  which  has  attended  the 
efforts  of  some  of  those  who  have  already  launched  out  in 
this  new  business,  I  might  say  by  way  of  encouragement 
that  I  have  already  succeeded  in  insuring  a  few  of  my  own 
sex  for  $100,000,  and  there  are  some  women  carrying  life 
insurance  policies  who  spend  every  year  as  much  as 
$15,000  in  life  insurance  premiums. 

When  the  many  incentives  for  women  to  insure  are 
noted,  and  it  is  seen  that  comparatively  few  of  them  in 
this  country  of  vast  wealth  and  resources  have  ever  been 
approached  on  the  subject,  it  will  be  recognised  at  a  glance 
how  much  employment  this  unworked  field  in  life  insur- 
ance ought  to  give  to  those  who  are  enterprising  in  the 
pursuit  of  business  careers. 

MINNIE  TUMBLESON  BROWN. 

Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  New  York. 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      327 


THE  WEST  END  EXCHANGE. 

An  Admirable  Enterprise. — //  Creates  a  Capital  Market  for 

The  Handiwork  of  Gentlewomen. — An  Institution 

Worthy  of  Hearty  Support. 

To  instruct,  encourage  and  aid  women  to  self-support 
is  the  object  of  the  West  End  Exchange  and  Industrial 
Union,  No.  380  Amsterdam  Ave.,  corner  of  Seventy-eighth 
St.,  New  York  City.  It  was  organized  in  March,  1896, 
and  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
The  constitution  and  by-laws  were  adopted  at  the  first 
meeting  held  on  the  24th  of  the  same  month. 

The  Exchange  is  under  the  control  of  a  Board  of  Mana- 
gers, consisting  of  fifteen  women,  who  are  elected  by  the 
members  of  the  association  at  the  annual  meeting  held  on 
the  first  Monday  in  March.  In  their  turn  the  managers 
elect  the  president  and  other  officers  to  serve  during  the 
ensuing  year. 

The  work  of  the  Exchange  increased  rapidly  from  the 
start,  and  many  women  have  been  enabled  to  help  them- 
selves, and  those  dependent  upon  their  labours,  by  prompt 
weekly  payments  for  articles  which  they  have  consigned 
to  the  exchange.  Consignors  usually  find  a  ready  sale  for 
their  handiwork. 

The  work  is  divided  into  several  departments,  each  one 
under  a  committee  appointed  by  the  president.  In  the 
domestic  department  are  always  to  be  found  fresh  bread 
and  rolls,  a  great  variety  of  home-made  cakes,  pie,  pre- 
serves, candy  and  delicacies  for  the  sick,  all  carefully  pre- 
pared and  submitted  to  the  Approval  Committee  before 
being  offered  for  sale.  In  the  department  for  fancy  work 
may  be  had  a  good  assortment  of  hand-painted  china, 


328  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

tally  and  menu  cards,  embroideries,  infants'  and  children's 
clothing,  and  an  infinite  variety  of  useful  articles. 

An  employment  bureau  is  also  connected  with  the  Ex- 
change where  trustworthy  servants  may  be  promptly  se- 
cured at  the  usual  price  paid  to  all  employment  agencies. 
This  department  is  in  charge  of  a  competent  person,  who 
investigates  the  references  of  servants  before  recommend- 
ing them  to  employers. 

A  free  circulating  library  is  another  important  adjunct 
to  the  Exchange.  It  has  proved  a  decided  success.  The 
large  population  in  the  neighbourhood  appreciates  the 
advantage  of  obtaining  a  good  book  to  read  upon  applica- 
tion to  the  librarian.  The  library  is  open  daily  from  2  until 
6  o'clock.  The  number  of  applications  for  books  increases 
every  month.  Donations  of  readable  books  are  always 
acceptable.  The  travelling  branch  of  the  New  York  Free 
Circulating  Library  kindly  loaned  two  hundred  books  to 
start  the  Exchange  Library.  The  majority  of  the  readers 
are  adults. 

A  bureau  of  information  is  also  one  of  the  features  of 
the  Exchange  for  the  benefit  of  people  desiring  the 
addresses  of  teachers,  dressmakers,  hairdressers,  mani- 
cures, and  those  who  pursue  all  other  branches  of  wo- 
man's work.  The  addresses  of  these  people  are  registered 
in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose. 

The  rooms  of  the  Exchange  are  located  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  West  Side.  They  are  neat  and  cheerful  in 
appearance,  and  presided  over  by  ladies  who  are  kind  and 
courteous  to  all  visitors. 

The  rules  for  the  consignors  are  very  simple.  An 
annual  fee  of  $3  is  required  from  all  depositors,  except 
those  who  present  a  ticket  from  a  member.  Each  member 
is  allowed  two  tickets.  A  commission  of  10  per  cent,  is 
charged  upon  all  sales  in  every  department  up  to  $10,  and 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      329 

15  per  cent,  upon  sales  exceeding  that  amount.  Each 
article  must  be  approved  by  the  proper  committee  before 
it  is  received.  It  is  then  entered  upon  the  books  of  the 
Exchange  and  disposed  of  to  the  best  advantage,  the 
consignor  always  putting  the  price  upon  the  work. 

The  Board  of  Managers  devote  much  time  and  thought 
to  the  work  of  the  Exchange,  which  so  fa'r  has  been  most  en- 
couraging. When  established,  nearly  three  years  ago,  there 
was  a  small  debt  resting  upon  the  Exchange, which  was  soon 
paid  off,  and  by  the  careful  management  of  the  treasurer 
indebtedness  has  never  recurred.  The  beginning  of  each 
month  shows  a  good  balance  in  the  bank,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  running  expenses  have  almost  doubled. 
Increased  work  has  necessitated  another  room  and  a 
greater  number  of  employees.  The  annual  subscription  of 
$6  a  year  from  each  subscriber,  the  fees  paid  by  consignors 
and  the  10  per  cent,  paid  on  all  sales  are  the  assured  income, 
which  is  increased  by  donations.  Occasionally  an  enter- 
tainment is  given  for  the  benefit  of  the  fund. 

Many  of  the  consignors  make  a  good  income,  several  in 
the  domestic  department  averaging  over  $20  a  week. 

The  Exchange  assists  a  class  of  people  who  are,  perhaps, 
the  most  difficult  to  reach,  and  many  a  case  of  absolute 
want  among  gentlewomen  has  been  relieved  through  the 
market  opened  to  them  by  the  Exchange.  This  truly  use- 
ful and  practical  undertaking  should  commend  itself  to 
the  patronage  of  all  the  residents  of  the  West  Side.  It  is 
the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  that  part  of  the  city,  and  the 
benefits  derived  from  it  are  widespread.  The  continued 
success  of  the  West  End  Exchange  is  only  a  question  of 
wider  publicity. 


330  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

ONE  SERVANTS'  AGENCY. 

THE  manner  in  which  one  woman  in  New  York  manages 
a  servants'  agency  is  told  as  follows  : 

"  My  method  of  serving  a  subscriber  is  to  have  her  name 
an  hour  when  she  will  be  at  my  rooms.  I  then  arrange  to 
have  the  person  whom  I  have  selected  as  being  suitable 
for  her  requirements  ready  to  meet  her.  If  the  meeting 
is  not  satisfactory,  then  another  time  is  appointed  and 
other  applicants  are  sent  for. 

"  In  this  manner  my  rooms  are  not  filled  with  women  in 
search  of  work.  A  servant  is  seen  to  much  better  advan- 
tage alone  than  in  a  room  filled  with  others.  It  is  also 
confusing  to  the  employer  to  have  many  persons  presented 
to  her  at  once. 

"  In  addition  to  this  I  know  what  sort  of  individual  the 
employer  wants,  and  I  also  know  the  kind  of  place  the 
applicant  will  most  satisfactorily  fill,  so  that  my  plan 
seems  to  answer  all  purposes." 


WOMEN  AS  FINANCIERS. 

They  Are  Excellent  Money-Maker s. — Some  Notable  Instances 

of  American   Women   Who  Have  Engaged  in  Business, 

with  Much  Success,  on  Their  Own  Account. 

I  UNDERSTAND  that  The  Tribune's  work  deals  mainly 
with  the  simple  question  of  how  a  woman  can  make  her 
own  living  if  she  is  obliged  to,  the  qualities  which  are 
needed  in  each  vocation,  and  the  pay.  It  may  possibly 
prove  an  inspiration  to  women  of  decided  talent  for 
affairs,  however  (and  there  are  many  such),  to  learn  of 
the  brilliant  success  of  some  of  their  sisters  in  the  broader 
field  as  employers  of  labour  and  operators  in  finance. 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      331 

in  America,  where  the  men  take  a  distinct  pride  in 
being  the  money-makers  of  the  family  and  in  providing 
for  their  women  not  only  all  the  comforts  but  some  of  the 
luxuries  of  life,  the  vast  majority  of  women  can  have  no 
opportunity  to  show  their  financial  ability  except  in  aid- 
ing their  husbands  or  male  relatives  to  establish  their 
independence. 

John  Jacob  Astor  the  first,  who  made  the  largest  for- 
tune of  his  time  in  this  country,  and  whose  descendants 
unitedly  are  one  of  the  three  richest  families  here,  began 
life  in  the  fur  business  in  a  little  store  in  Water  St.,  in 
New  York  City,  following  the  fashion  of  the  small  mer- 
chants of  the  day  by  living,  with  his  wife,  over  the  store. 
He  was  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  his  wife  was  the  best 
business  partner  he  ever  had.  By  her  sound  advice,  her 
common-sense,  the  direct  aid  she  gave  her  husband  in 
many  ways  and  her  economies  while  they  were  yet  poor, 
she  exerted  an  important  influence  in  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  Mr.  Astor's  great  riches. 

She  was  not  the  first  shrewd  and  sensible  wife  to  per- 
form such  a  service,  and  certainly  she  has  not  been  the 
last.  If  a  gentleman  of  Boston — lawyer  and  railroad  pres- 
ident— were  alive  to-day  he  would  cheerfully  bear  testi- 
mony to  the  help  he  received  from  his  wife  in  the  early 
days  when  he  was  a  poor  preacher  struggling  to  obtain 
an  education  in  the  law,  and  when  they  kept  chickens  to 
piece  out  their  slender  income  until  more  prosperous 
days  should  arrive,  which  days  finally  did  come,  thanks  to 
the  sense  and  energy  of  both  husband  and  wife,  leaving 
the  family  in  a  position  of  financial  ease. 

Mr.  Elwood,  of  De  Kalb,  111.,  can  tell  a  good  story  of 
the  service  rendered  him  by  the  cool  common-sense  of  his 
excellent  wife  in  the  infancy  of  the  barbed-wire  industry. 
Her  advice,  exceedingly  distasteful  at  first,  started  him  in 


332  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

the  right  direction  and  led  to  his  fortune.  Such  stories 
can  be  told  of  thousands  of  American  wives. 

But  many  women  must  operate  on  their  own  account,  if 
at  all,  and  there  are  many  notable  cases  where  they  have 
done  well.  While  statistics  are  not  obtainable  at  present, 
the  writer  is  almost  prepared  to  assert  that  the  majority 
of  women  do  better  on  their  own  account  than  the  major- 
ity of  men,  in  spite  of  the  superior  physical  strength  of 
the  latter. 

It  is  well  known  that  women  have  operated  many  canal- 
boats  on  the  Erie  Canal  for  years  and  with  success,  and 
at  the  boatyards  on  the  towpath  a  woman  who  wants  to 
buy  a  new  boat  is  rated,  as  a  rule,  a  better  risk  than  a 
boatman  of  the  masculine  persuasion,  if  she  has  any 
capacity  at  all.  The  builder  is  more  likely  to  get  his 
money.  Women  are  more  conscientious  ;  they  are  saving 
and  thrifty,  and  they  do  not  waste  their  earnings  in 
saloons  and  taverns. 

In  1852  Mrs.  Deborah  Powers,  of  Lansingburg,  N.  Y., 
went  into  another  field  of  labour,  that  of  manufacturing 
on  her  own  account.  Her  husband  had  started  a  little 
oilcloth  factory  in  the  village  and  had  made  some  modest 
investments  in  other  local  matters,  but  had  by  no  means 
made  anything  like  a  fortune.  Mr.  Powers  died  in  1852, 
and  Mrs.  Powers  took  hold  at  once,  and  by  her  vigour  of 
mind  and  body  made  the  family  enterprises  a  handsome 
success.  Her  two  sons,  young  men,  did  much  of  the  ac- 
tual work,  under  their  mother's  direction,  and  became  her 
partners.  With  advancing  years  she  allowed  the  manage- 
ment to  drift  more  and  more  into  their  hands.  But  until 
her  death,  in  1891,  at  the  age  of  nearly  101  years,  she 
remained  the  head  of  the  oilcloth  industry,  the  bank  and 
other  enterprises  of  the  house  of  Deborah  Powers  &  Sons, 
then  worth  $1,000,000  or  more. 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      333 

Mrs.  Lydia  Bradley,  of  Peoria,  111.,  lost  her  husband  by 
death  about  thirty  years  ago.  He  had  been  an  active  and 
successful  business  man,  and  left  his  wife  about  $200,000, 
a  sum  sufficient  to  place  her  beyond  the  reach  of  want  for 
life.  Many  women  in  such  circumstances  would  merely 
have  kept  what  was  left  them  ;  others,  would  have  spent 
it  all.  Mrs.  Bradley  was  a  woman  of  vigourous  mind,  and 
preferred  to  be  an  active  factor  in  affairs.  Managing  her 
property  herself,  she  went  on  with  it,  invested  with  judg- 
ment as  occasion  arose  in  other  lines  of  business,  saved  as 
much  as  possible,  and  by  careful  attention  to  good  busi- 
ness principles  increased  her  estate,  until  she  is  now  one 
of  the  most  prosperous  women  in  Illinois  and  considered 
worth  a  full  $1,000,000.  She  enjoys  the  warm  regard  of 
her  fellow-townsmen,  and  is  a  woman  of  marked  philan- 
thropy. 

Mrs.  Susanna  B.  Emery,  the  richest  woman  in  Utah, 
traces  her  good  fortune  to  coolness  of  judgment,  per- 
severance and  genuine  business  ability.  When  her  hus- 
band, A.  C.  Emery,  died  he  left  her  some  mining  property, 
then  thought  to  be  worth  very  little  if  anything.  Mrs. 
Emery  refused  to  sell  at  the  trifle  the  property  would  then 
have  brought.  She  kept  the  claims,  promoted  their 
development,  saw  the  yield  grow  to  a  most  satisfactory 
figure,  and  is  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  an  income  which 
is  said  at  times  to  amount  to  over  $40,000  a  year. 

There  are  plenty  of  cases  like  that  of  Mrs.  Emery. 
Patience,  the  ability  to  wait  a  little  while  for  results, 
seems  to  be  a  virtue  of  women  in  a  marked  degree.  The 
trait  tells  in  the  long  run. 

The  Coleman  family,  of  Lebanon,  Penn.,  famous  for  its 
connection  with  the  iron-ore  industry,  has  produced  some 
exceedingly  good  business  women,  sensible,  prudent  and 
accumulative. 


334  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Mrs.  Hetty  Green,  one  of  the  richest  of  American 
women,  is  a  quaint,  energetic,  driving  individual  of  strong 
business  qualities.  At  the  age  of  thirty  years  she  had 
been  for  several  years  an  assistant  to  her  father,  Mr.  Rob- 
inson, a  shipping  merchant  of  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  and 
was  well  trained  in  the  economy,  industry  and  faithful 
regard  for  the  main  chance  which  distinguish  the  New 
England  character.  By  the  death  of  her  father,  in  1865, 
she  was  left  in  possession  of  a  moderate  fortune.  Two 
years  later  she  married  Mr.  Green,  but  she  has  always 
managed  her  own  affairs,  and  has  increased  her  estate  so 
remarkably  in  financiering  and  railroad  management  that 
the  wildest  tales  are  now  afloat  as  to  her  probable  riches. 
No  doubt  half  of  what  the  newspapers  say  about  her  accu- 
mulations is  based  on  an  inadequate  idea  of  what  a  million 
of  money  really  means  and  upon  the  imaginations  of  the 
writers,  but  that  she  is  now  worth  several  millions  seems 
to  be  beyond  question.  She  is  a  wide-awake  but  careful 
buyer  of  securities  for  a  rise,  and  a  good  judge  of  a  rail- 
road property  ;  she  loves  business  and  lives  in  it ;  she  is 
untiring  as  a  worker,  and  saving.  Her  fortune  is  the 
result  mainly  of  business  qualities  of  the  first  order,  the 
possession  of  which  any  man  might  envy. 

Lotta(Miss  Crabtree),  long  a  popular  actress,  is  as  good 
a  business  woman  as  an  artist.  Her  stage  career  and 
hard  work  brought  her  excellent  earnings,  and,  coupled 
with  a  saving  nature,  gave  her  the  means  to  operate  with. 
By  sound  investments,  mainly  in  real  estate  in  Boston  and 
New  York  City,  in  growing  sections,  she  has  added  to  her 
capital  year  by  year,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  Lotta  may  now  honestly  claim  to  be  a  millionaire. 
There  are  some  stories  afloat  of  profitable  speculations  at 
the  great  exchanges  also. 

Corinne,  the  actress,  has  also  made  herself  a  rich  woman 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      335 

by  her  talent  in  the  dramatic  field  and  by  good  invest- 
ments. She  has  also  inherited  a  little,  but  this  accession 
of  good  fortune  came  to  one  who  knew  how  to  make  use 
of  it  properly.  Several  other  popular  dramatic  stars  have 
made  considerable  progress  in  the  accumulation  of  wealth. 
These  are  only  a  few  notable  cases.  Others  could  be 
recited.  They  are  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  this  essay, 
however.  The  other  side  of  the  story — the  number  of 
cases  where  women  have  earned  and  have  lost,  or  where 
they  inherited  and  spent  their  patrimony — could  also  be 
told  if  there  were  any  good  in  so  doing.  Such  instances 
might  help  to  point  a  moral,  but  the  stories  would  be  too 
personal  and  the  moral  is  obvious  without.  The  conclu- 
sion is  that  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  in  the  nat- 
ural order  of  things  why  a  good  woman,  saving,  careful, 
clear-headed  and  determined  to  rise,  cannot  engage  in 
business  and  retire  from  active  labour  at  the  time  when 
ease  becomes  of  more  importance  than  the  excitements  of 
a  career,  with  a  sum  sufficient  to  make  her  declining  years 
full  of  comfort,  and  possibly  even  of  no  little  luxury. 


SALEGIRLS  IN    NEW  YORK. 

An  Occupation  Which  Is  Already  Crowded. —  The  Country  Girl 

Advised  to  Stay  Away   From  New  York  City. — If, 

However,    She  Must  Come,  then    What  She 

Ought  and  Ought  Not  to  Do — Salaries. — 

The  Factories. 

THE  advice  given  by  Punch  to  those  about  to  marry 
is  such  a  hackneyed  one  that  I  am  almost  afraid  to  use  it. 
And  yet  I  find  that  "Don't  "  just  expresses  what  I  want 
to  say  to  country  girls  who  think  about  coming  to  New 
York  City  for  employment.  All  the  great  centres  of  popu- 


336  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

lation,  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia  an\ 
others,  are  crowded  with  women  seeking  for  work,  and  the 
competition  is  so  keen  that  inexperienced  and  friendless 
girls  are  overwhelmed  by  it,  and  they  are  beset  with  trials, 
disappointments  and  snares  everywhere. 

In  all  the  great  stores,  and,  indeed,  in  nearly  every 
store,  a  city  reference,  as  well  as  a  city  residence,  is 
required,  and  those  who  have  both  are  selected  first. 

Girls  who  live  in  boarding  and  furnished-room  houses 
are  looked  upon  with  disfavour,  because  the  moral  tone  of 
the  home  is  considered  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  young 
women.  Furthermore,  employers  know  well  that  their 
salesgirls  cannot  pay  board  and  dress  themselves  on  the 
wages  they  receive  as  beginners  unless  they  live  at  home. 

If  the  salesgirl  is  one  of  a  family  of  wage  earners  she 
can  pay  a  part  of  her  salary  into  the  general  fund  at  home 
and  retain  part  for  dress,  carfares  and  other  petty 
expenses.  But  the  girl  without  a  city  home  has  to  depend 
solely  on  her  small  salary,  and  the  consequent  worry,  to 
say  nothing  of  her  exposure  to  temptation,  injures  her 
commercial  usefulness. 

Cashgirls,  of  whom  few  are  employed  in  these  latter 
days,  receive  at  the  good  stores  when  they  begin  work  $2 
a  week,  stockgirls,  $3  to  $3.50,  and  salesgirls,  $6.  At  the 
latter  figure  some  experience  is  expected  from  the  clerk, 
which  may  have  been  in  the  service  as  cash  or  stock  girl 
in  the  same  store  or  as  salesgirl  in  another  one.  Pay  is 
advanced  with  the  usefulness  of  the  girl  to  $8  and  $9. 

Hours  of  attendance  are  from  8  A.  M.  to  6  p.  M.  with 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  for  luncheon,  and  a  half-holiday, 
one  day  each  week,  for  two  months  of  the  year.  Every 
good  house  pays  its  employees  for  overtime  during  the 
Christmas  holidays,  either  in  money,  suppers,  or  "  days 
off "  later. 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      337 

In  all  the  principal  houses  the  girls  dress  in  black  in 
the  winter  and  wear  black  skirts  and  shirtwaists  in  the 
summer. 

Exceptionally  bright  girls  usually  become  the  "  head  of 
stock  "  or  are  given  some  other  place  of  responsibility, 
and  have  corresponding  pay.  Some  stores  employ  women 
for  buyers,  and  pay  them  from  $2,000 'to  $5,000  a  year, 
and  it  is  significant  that  they  have  all  risen  from  the 
ranks.  They  tell  me  in  the  stores  that  this  must  be  so, 
and  that  no  woman,  no  matter  what  her  general  educa- 
tion and  ability  may  be,  can  hope  to  obtain  such  a  place 
unless  she  has  graduated  from  behind  the  counter,  where 
she  gained  her  practical  experience.  Among  the  best- 
paying  stores  the  health  of  the  employees  is  given  special 
attention,  but  Wanamaker,  I  believe,  stands  alone  in  hav- 
ing a  trained  nurse  constantly  at  the  store  to  attend  them. 
The  dry-goods  houses  usually  take  care  of  their  girls 
through  the  benefit  funds  started  in  the  stores,  the  money 
for  which  is  obtained  from  fines  paid  by  the  tardy  work- 
ers and  from  the  small  sums  they  themselves  pay  in. 

For  a  girl  who  is  physically  strong  and  intelligent  there 
is  a  chance  of  employment  in  large  cities  in  the  factories. 
One  such  institution  in  New  York  City  alone  employs 
twenty-five  hundred  girls,  and  the  conditions  are  usually 
good.  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  "  sweat-shops,"  of  course. 
Factory  girls  have  one  advantage — they  are  not  obliged 
to  spend  their  money  for  dress,  nor  are  they  exposed  to 
the  temptations  caused  by  seeing  money  expended  for 
frivolous  things,  which,  after  a  while,  actually  look  to  the 
salesgirl  as  though  they  were  necessities. 

The  earnings  of  a  worker  in  the  factories  depend  upon 
her  own  skill.  Indeed,  $10  and  $12  a  week  is  not  at  all 
unusual  pay.  It  is  true,  however,  that  factories  do  not 
run  steadily  the  whole  year  round.  The  earnings  of 


338  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

feather  curlers  and  artificial  flower  makers  are  better  than 
those  paid  in  some  other  industries,  but  I  do  not  advise  a 
girl  to  work  as  either,  because  those  trades  are  apt  to 
develop  certain  forms  of  disease.  Most  operatives  are 
paid  by  the  piece,  so  that  earnings  often  run  higher  than 
the  scale  just  mentioned, 

Ferris's  factory,  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  has  an  excellent 
luncheon-room  for  the  girls,  and  provides  overshoes  and 
umbrellas  for  them,  and  similarly  kind  treatment  is 
accorded  in  many  of  the  New  York  City  factories. 

Every  working  girl  should  save  some  amount  from  her 
earnings  every  week.  The  Penny  Provident  Fund  will 
accept  the  smallest  sum,  and  some  of  the  savings  banks 
remain  open  until  7  or  7:30  p.  M.  for  the  especial  conve- 
nience of  working  people. 

A  girl  might  well  avail  herself  also  of  some  of  the  bene- 
fit societies  which  are  so  numerous  in  New  York  and 
other  large  cities.  The  New  York  Association  of  Work- 
ing Girls'  Societies  has  a  benefit  fund,  whereby  a  girl  will 
receive  during  illness  $8  a  week  for  six  consecutive  weeks 
in  any  year,  by  paying  into  the  fund  40  cents  a  month. 
For  25  cents  she  will  receive  $5  a  week,  and  for  15  cents 
$3  weekly. 

By  joining  one  of  the  clubs,  either  of  this  society  or  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  or  of  similar 
organizations,  the  working  girl  will  have  a  social  life,  not 
otherwise  open  to  her,  and  an  opportunity  for  mental  and 
spiritual  improvement. 

If  a  country  girl  must  come  to  New  York,  let  her  go  to 
the  women's  dressing-rooms  of  the  railroad  station  when 
she  arrives  and  read  the  addresses  of  Christian  homes 
which  she  will  find  on  the  walls.  If  she  writes  to  the 
Manhattan  East  Side  Mission,  No.  416  East  Twenty-sixth 
St.,  a  woman  will  meet  her,  but  if  she  does  not  do  this, 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      339 

and  she  arrives  in  the  city  late,  she  would  better  spend 
the  night  in  the  waiting  room,  rather  than  go  into  the 
streets  alone  and  ignorant  of  her  way.  In  Philadelphia  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  looks  after  young 
travellers,  and  in  Boston  the  Travellers'  Aid  Society. 

A  girl  should  not  enter  into  conversation  with  any 
stranger,  whether  man  or  woman,  and  she  would  better 
avoid  asking  for  information  from  hackmen.  The  police- 
man on  duty  inside  of  the  station  will  always  be  willing 
to  direct  her. 

The  matron  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Girls'  Club  House, 
No.  136  East  Forty-seventh  St.,  and  the  Episcopal  Sisters 
at  the  Shelter  for  Respectable  Girls,  No.  241  West  Four- 
teenth St.,  will  be  glad  to  welcome  strangers.  The 
Women's  Lodging  House  at  No.  6  Rivington  St.,  is  a  cheap 
and  respectable  place,  which  may  also  safely  be  recom- 
mended. 

But,  of  course,  these  are  only  temporary  stopping 
places.  Permanent  boarding  places  should  be  found  as 
soon  as  possible.  The  best  way  is  to  apply  at  the  board 
directory  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
No.  7  East  Fifteenth  St. 

Of  course,  our  country  girl  must  not  come  to  town 
unless  she  has  enough  money  to  tide  her  over  for  at  least 
two  months.  During  that  time  she  can  improve  her 
acquaintance  with  the  Christian  women  whom  she  will 
meet  at  the  homes  and  clubs,  and  through  them,  and  inde- 
pendent of  them,  but  with  their  advice^  she  will  seek  for 
a  place  in  the  great  workrooms  of  the  city. 

GRACE  H.  DODGE. 


WAGES  OF  SALESGIRLS. 

THERE  is  little  to  add  to  the  paper  of  Miss  Dodge  c.-u 


340  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

the  subject  of  salesgirls,  save  the  compensation  which  is 
paid  in  other  cities. 

Voluminous  information  on  this  branch  of  business  has 
been  collected  by  those  interested  in  the  welfare  of  labour. 
One  of  the  most  important  factors  in  keeping  the  wages 
of  salesgirls  down  to  their  present  low  standard  is  the  fact 
that  no  special  technical  education  is  required,  and  the 
number  of  those  who  must  go  to  work  without  such  an 
education  is  very  large.  Another  factor  is  the  intense 
competition  between  the  department  stores,  which  compels 
them  to  crowd  the  payrolls  down  to  the  lowest  possible 
minimum.  And  such  stores  set  the  fashion  largely  for  the 
smaller  ones. 

Leaving  the  cashgirls  and  young  children  out  of  the 
question,  the  standard  minimum  rate  of  wages  seems  to 
be  $4  and  $5  a  week  in  almost  every  large  city.  There 
are  cases  where  it  is  less,  but  the  rule  is  as  stated.  From 
the  figures  named  the  rate  of  weekly  earnings  of  the  girls 
ranges  upward  to  $8  and  $10  a  week  for  those  who  show 
some  business  alertness  and  tact.  Girls  or  women  in  the 
more  important  positions  are  given  from  $12  to  $15,  and 
even  as  high  as  $18,  $20  and  $25  a  week.  The  latter 
usually  have  the  oversight  of  other  girls  or  of  a  depart- 
ment. 


ADVERTISEMENT  WRITING. 

The  Art  of  Catching  the  Public  Eye. — Good,  Sound  Sense  and 

a  Knowledge  of  the  Business  World  Are  the 

Chief  Essentials. 

"PROMISE,  large  promise,"  said  Samuel  Johnson,  "is 
the  soul  of  an  advertisement." 

So  rapidly  has  advertising  developed  in   the   last   ten 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      341 

years,  so  generally  is  it  now  recognised  as  a  powerful  fac- 
tor in  the  business  world,  that  it  is  not  strange  that  alert 
woman  is  turning  her  attention  in  that  direction,  with  the 
query  :  "  Am  I  qualified  to  write  advertisements  ?  What 
are  the  possibilities?  Is  there  money  in  it  for  me  ?  " 

More  than  one  business  house  in  the  United  States  em- 
ploys a  man  to  write  its  advertisements  at  a  salary  much 
larger  than  that  which  the  State  of  New  York  pays  its 
Governor.  Why  may  not  the  right  women  command  like 
pay  for  like  skill  ? 

"  To  write  a  striking  advertisement,  "  to  quote  an  ex- 
pert, "  is  a  distinctive  talent.  It  is  not  likely  to  lie  within 
the  province  of  the  essayist,  the  critic,  the  story-teller 
or  the  reviewer,  though  an  erroneous  impression  prevails 
that  any  one  who  can  handle  a  facile  pen  can  write  an  ad- 
vertisement. *  Try  it, '  urges  the  man  whose  columns  in 
the  morning  papers  blockade  entrance  to  his  employer's 
store  before  the  opening  hour.  Intuitive  knowledge  of 
human  nature  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  business 
to  be  exploited  are  almost  imperative  to  the  writer  of  ad- 
vertisements ambitious  of  permanant  success." 

The  experience  of  Miss  Kate  E.  Griswold,  of  Boston, 
Mass.,  is  interesting.  She  is  the  editor  and  publisher  of 
Profitable  Advertising,  a  monthly  journal  for  advertisers. 
Miss  Griswold  was  born  in  West  Hartford,  Conn.,  and 
passed  her  early  girlhood  there.  She  was  educated  in  the 
high  school  of  that  place,  and  took  a  finishing  course  at 
Woodside,  a  school  for  young  women  in  Hartford.  At 
the  age  of  sixteen  she  entered  the  office  of  The  Poultry 
World,  at  Hartford,  where  she  handled  much  of  the  corre- 
spondence pertaining  to  the  advertising  department  of 
that  paper.  Later  she  worked  in  the  office  of  the  Na- 
tional Trotting  Association,  where  her  close  application  re- 
sulted in  nervous  prostration,  which  compelled  her  to 


342  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

retire  from  the  business  world  for  some  time.  When  her 
health  recovered  she  became  business  manager  of  The 
Hartford  City  Mission  Record,  which  place  she  held  for  five 
years.  After  this  she  was  engaged  by  the  C.  F.  David 
Advertising  Agency  of  Boston,  to  edit  Profitable  Adver- 
tising. The  agency  could  not  make  a  success  of  the  pub- 
lication, and  finally  it  was  turned  over  to  Miss  Griswold 
as  a  failure.  She  would  not  give  up,  however,  and  after 
suffering  many  a  hard  knock  and  crossing  many  rough 
places  she  brought  it  to  the  front,  and  all  this  in  the  face 
of  the  fact  that  there  were  several  well-established  jour- 
nals of  the  same  character  in  the  field  prior  to  the  time 
she  entered  it. 

Miss  Griswold  says  :  "  There  are  many  phases  in  the 
advertising  business — many  and  varied  places  which  can 
be  and  are  being  filled  advantageously  by  both  men  and 
women.  But  in  this,  as  in  other  lines  of  business,  results 
count.  In  order  to  bring  the  science  of  advertising  to  bear 
upon  a  certain  line  of  business  in  such  a  manner  as  to  turn 
the  pockets  of  the  reading  public  inside  out,  ability  to  speak 
or  to  write  the  '  king's  English  '  to  perfection,  sketch  an 
attractive  illustrative  feature  or  arrange  a  pleasing  type 
display  are  not  as  essential  as  might  be  supposed  to  the 
man  or  woman  occupying  the  place  of  advertisement 
writer,  designer,  agent  or  solicitor.  All  these  things  are 
important  in  their  way.  The  chief  essential  is  good, 
sound  business  sense,  a  knowledge  of  the  business  to  be 
exploited  and  of  the  condition  of  the  market,  and  such  a 
fund  of  general  information  pertaining  to  the  business 
world  as  can  only  be  acquired  through  actual  experience 
and  close  contact  with  it.  Before  one  can  reach  the  point 
where  her  services  are  really  valuable,  in  a  commercial 
sense,  the  student  must  climb  many  rounds  of  the  ladder 
and  pass  through  a  variety  of  experiences." 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      343 

Miss  Griswold  advises  a  young  woman  who  contemplates 
entering  the  advertising  field  to  connect  herself  with  the 
advertising  department  of  some  large  manufacturing  or 
retail  establishment,  or  with  a  recognised  agency,  and 
learn  the  "ins  and  outs"  of  the  business.  If  she  is  bright 
she  will  readily  acquire  a  knowledge  which  will  make  her 
services  of  value. 

"  The  men  and  women  who  are  succeeding  to-day  in  the 
advertising  business,"  Miss  Griswold  declares,  "are  those 
who  have  kept  *  everlastingly  at  it,'  and  have  added  good 
judgment  to  close  application." 

Miss  Annie  Partlan,  who  has  attained  success  in  New 
York,  once  made  the  remark  that  when  she  commenced 
the  work  she  was  self-conscious,  then  she  became  semi- 
conscious, and  lastly,  unconscious.  While  this  was  not 
literally  true,  it  was  a  terse  way  of  saying  a  great  deal. 

Miss  Partlan  was  born  in  Kingston,  N.  Y.,  a  little  less 
than  twenty-five  years  ago.  She  was  one  of  a  large  fam- 
ily of  children.  Before  she  left  school  she  developed  a 
strong  tendency  toward  writing,  and  while  at  home  she 
wrote  a  good  deal  for  various  local  papers,  her  subjects 
embracing  nearly  everything  from  news  items  to  poetry. 
Her  first  city  experience  was  with  a  Brooklyn  dry-goods 
house,  where  she  assisted  with  the  office  work  and  book- 
keeping. She  also  had  a  small  portion  of  the  advertising 
work  to  do.  But  it  was  fully  a  year  before  the  idea  of 
entering  the  advertising  field  occurred  to  her  and  then  she 
felt  incapable  of  doing  so. 

For  four  years  longer  she  held  similar  places  with  dif- 
ferent firms,  and  for  some  time  she  had  entire  charge  of  the 
mail-order  correspondence  of  a  large  mail-order  house  in 
New  York.  During  this  time  the  advertising  idea  grew 
upon  her.  While  she  felt  great  timidity  about  attempting 
the  work,  she  lost  no  opportunity  of  studying  the  various 


344  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

kinds  of  advertising.  At  last,  convinced  that  she  could 
make  a  success  in  this  line,  she  resigned  her  place  with 
the  mail-order  house  and  began  work  as  a  special  writer 
upon  a  New  York  Sunday  newspaper. 

At  that  time  this  seemed  to  her  to  be  the  best  step 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  her  ambition,  but  the  work 
soon  became  difficult  and  exceedingly  distasteful,  and  she 
gave  it  up,  resolved  at  any  cost  to  gain  a  foothold  in 
advertising  work.  Thus  she  entered  the  field,  unknown 
and  with  absolutely  nothing  to  depend  upon  excepting 
her  own  energy  and  perseverance.  For  several  months  her 
path  seemed  rougher  at  every  turn.  Her  friends  told  her 
that  she  was  following  a  rainbow,  and  assured  her  that 
ultimately  she  would  fail.  This  made  her  more  deter- 
mined and  independent.  She  would  not  ask  for  help, 
though  often  she  felt  the  need  of  it.  She  worked  out  her 
ideas  for  different  advertisers,  but  they  did  not  sell,  and 
her  expenses  were  defrayed  with  the  proceeds  of  the  sales 
of  various  novelties,  which  she  was  forced  to  peddle. 

She  achieved  her  first  success  in  the  spring  of  1898, 
when  she  sold  to  the  Siegel-Cooper  Company  an  idea  for 
a  street-car  card.  Miss  Partlan  is  now  associated  with 
the  advertising  firm  of  Gillam  &  Shaughnessy,  and  has 
complete  charge  of  the  advertising  of  Arnheim,  the  tailor. 

Miss  Partlan  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being  the  only 
woman  in  the  advertising  business  who  does  the 
whole  work  from  start  to  finish.  She  writes  the  adver- 
tisements, plans  the  illustrations  and  buys  the  advertising 
space — in  fact,  to  use  her  own  words,  "  takes  care  of  it  all." 

Miss  Edith  R.  Gerry  is  assistant  writer  of  advertising 
for  the  Siegel-Cooper  Company.  She  was  born  in  Worces- 
ter, Mass.,  and  went  to  New  York  with  her  parents  before 
she  had  finished  her  education.  After  leaving  school  she 
studied  stenography  and  typewriting,  and  entered  the 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      345 

office  of  a  well-known  advertising  agent  and  writer.  At 
that  time  the  business  was  small,  but  it  grew,  and  Miss 
Gerry  grew  with  it.  When  she  entered  the  office  she  had 
no  idea  of  adopting  advertising  as  a  vocation,  but  she  had 
firmly  resolved  to  make  a  success  of  anything  that  she 
undertook. 

For  three  years  she  remained  with  the  advertising  agen- 
cy, yet  it  was  fully  a  year  and  a  half  before  she  attempted 
the  writing  of  advertising  matter,  and  then  she  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  syndicate  work.  This  department  soon 
grew  from  eight  patrons  to  four  thousand,  and  Miss  Gerry 
had  advertisements  to  prepare  for  some  thirty  different 
lines  of  business  each  week.  Aside  from  writing  the  adver- 
tisements themselves  she  suggested  ideas  for  the  illustra- 
tions, and  this  experience  was  of  great  value  to  her,  for  it 
brought  her  into  touch  with  nearly  every  salable  thing 
under  the  sun.  Yet  the  work  was  confining,  and  several 
times  she  found  herself  on  the  verge  of  nervous  prostra- 
tion. 

From  this  place  she  went  to  the  Wanamaker  store  as 
assistant  writer.  After  this  she  was  advertising  manager 
for  a  large  medical  house  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  for  a 
short  time  managed  the  shredded-wheat  advertising  at 
Worcester,  Mass.  From  that  place  she  went  to  the  one 
that  she  now  holds.  Miss  Gerry  is  only  twenty-three, 
and  is  considered  one  of  the  brightest  young  women  in 
the  field. 

A  woman  writes  the  advertisements  and  has  complete 
charge  of  that  department  in  one  of  the  large  retail  dry- 
goods  houses  in  New  York  City.  She  entered  the  service 
of  the  firm  as  cashgirl,  and  has  risen  through  every  place 
to  her  present  responsibility. 

The  advertising  of  The  Drygoods  Economist  is 
largely  the  work  of  Miss  Pomeroy,  and  for  several  years 


346  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

the  brightest  writing  of  a  leading  advertising  agency  of 
New  York  was  done  by  a  woman,  whose  placards  in  the 
windows  of  a  cloak  house  in  the  West,  in  which  she  was 
employed  as  saleswoman,  attracted  the  agency,  which 
brought  her  East.  There  is  scarcely  a  large  dealer  in 
woman's  apparel  who  does  not  now  employ  a  woman  in 
some  department  of  its  advertising.  A  well-known  jew- 
elry house  is  said  to  pay  a  woman  $40  a  week  for  verses 
proclaiming  the  charm  of  its  novelties.  Most  of  the  win- 
ners of  prizes  offered  for  advertisements  are  women. 

"  When  I  was  greatly  in  need  of  money,"  said  a  busy 
woman,  "  it  occurred  to  me  that  I  might  earn  some  by 
writing  novel  advertisements.  I  wrote  to  a  florist  and 
seedsman  about  the  matter.  The  idea  struck  him  favour- 
ably at  once,  and  he  sent  me  a  brief  outline  of  work  to  be 
done.  There  was  to  be  some  mention  of  his  gardens  as  a 
whole,  then  of  his  annual  publication,  and  of  a  number  of 
special  flowers  and  shrubs.  For  example,  he  desired  par- 
ticular reference  to  a  plant  which  he  called  '  The  Caprice.' 
I  sent  him  three  verses,  the  first  of  which  was  : 

"  Now,  what  is  this  floral  *  Caprice,'  you  say  ? 
Why,  the  flowers  met  on  a  summer's  day, 
And  they  cried,  *  We  are  tired  of  blooming  for  aye, 
Each  rosy  season  the  same  old  way, 
So  we'll  see  what  we  can  do.' 

"  The  poem  related  how  each  flower  gave  of  its  beauty 
to  dower  a  peerless  rose,  of  which  I  made  a  careful 
description.  The  advertisements  were  of  great  variety,  in 
prose  and  verse,  and  comprised  puns  and  parodies, 
humourous  and  sentimental  matter.  The  florist  purchased 
them  all,  and  sent  them  out  in  circulars  to  his  customers." 

Miss  Helen  Hollister  writes  advertisements  for  D. 
McCarthy  &  Sons,  of  Syracuse,  and  there  are  one  or  two 
women  writers  in  Buffalo. 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      347 

Women  can  succeed  in  advertising,  but  not  all  women 
any  more  than  all  men.  The  salaries  paid  for  the  work 
range  from  $15  a  week  up  to  $1,000  a  month.  A  few 
advertising  places  pay  higher  than  that,  but  they  require 
many  qualifications  not  found  in  the  average  writer. 


DRESSING  STORE   WINDOWS. 

AT  the  present  time  the  dressing  or  trimming  of  the 
windows  of  the  large  department  stores  is  an  important 
item  in  the  business  of  the  firm.  Really  good  window- 
trimmers  are  not  plentiful,  and  the  demand  largely  exceeds 
the  supply.  Some  of  the  large  houses  employ  expert 
women  trimmers,  paying  them  a  good  salary.  Other 
houses  rely  upon  the  chances  of  picking  up  a  good  worker 
in  the  busy  season  and  depending  upon  some  makeshift 
for  the  dull  times. 

"  It  is  rather  a  surprising  fact  that  this  business  of 
window-dressing  is  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  men," 
said  one  of  these  women  window-dressers  to  a  Tribune 
reporter.  "  It  would  seem  that  this  was  a  branch  in  which 
women  might  do  themselves  credit  and  reap  a  pecuniary 
profit.  Nearly  all  of  the  window  displays  of  these  large 
establishments  contain  articles  that  appeal  more  directly 
to  the  feminine  eye,  and  a  woman  possessing  any  artistic 
taste  ought  to  be  able  to  dress  windows  fully  as  well  as  a 
man  can,  if  not  better." 

This  fashion  of  window  display  is  not  altogether  con- 
fined to  the  large  drygoods  palaces.  The  smaller  stores 
have  caught  the  idea,  and  the  windows  of  some  of  these 
make  most  creditable  displays.  A  look  at  the  windows  of 
the  large  establishments  shows  the  prevalence  of  the  one- 
item  idea,  and  these  form  a  part  in  some  houses  of  the 
advertised  sales  of  certain  lines  of  goods. 


348  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

This  field  of  work  is  a  large  one.  The  innumerable 
windows  of  the  palatial  stores  of  every  large  city  certainly 
furnish  a  sufficient  number  of  object-lessons  for  the  begin- 
ner to  start  with,  and  it  only  needs  the  clever  fingers  and 
ingenious  brains  of  some  women  to  render  the  window 
shows  even  more  attractive  than  they  are. 

As  for  salaries,  it  may  be  said  that  the  men  receive  all 
the  way  from  $9  to  $30  a  week  compensation  in  Philadel- 
phia, Boston,  Chicago  and  New  York.  A  genuine  artist 
in  colour  and  form  effects  is  sure  to  receive  special  con- 
sideration in  the  matter  of  salary.  Women  so  seldom 
receive  as  large  a  compensation  for  the  same  work  as  men 
that  their  salaries  as  window-dressers  do  not  range  higher 
than  $10,  $15  or  $20.  But  if  their  work  serves  definitely 
to  advertise  the  store  and  bring  curious  crowds  to  the 
window,  they  may  ask  anything  in  reason  and  they  will 
get  it. 


CLEVER  LAW-BOOK  AGENTS. 

A  DOZEN  or  more  large  publishing  houses  are  kept 
busy  working  on  new  law  books,  which  must  be  sold. 
Nearly  all  these  publishing  houses  employ  bright,  quick- 
witted women  to  do  the  selling.  Some  of  them  are  young 
and  attractive,  but  the  majority  are  middle-aged  women 
who  have  had  long  experience  and  possess  good  know- 
ledge of  human  nature.  These  saleswomen  are  familiar 
with  law  and  practice  ;  are  clever  in  telling  a  good  story, 
with  just  the  right  amount  of  flattery  thrown  in  to  enable 
them  to  induce  a  man  to  take  a  subscription  for  a  lot  of 
books  that,  perhaps,  he  will  never  use.  These  women 
learn  about  the  classes  at  the  various  law  schools,  and 
usually  know,  where  they  will  be  successful  in  their  sales 
before  they  start  out. 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      349 

EQUESTRIANISM. 

An    Unusual   Profession  for  a   Woman. — Children    Learn 

Quicker  From  a  Woman  Instructor. —  The  Labour  Is 

Hard,  but  Has  Its  Compensations. 

PRACTICAL  and  instructive  directions  concerning  the 
equestrian  art  should  give  such  help  as  a  girl  would  find 
useful  in  preparing  herself  to  become  a  teacher  in  riding. 
The  time  and  money  required  to  fit  herself  for  the  work 
and  the  outlook  when  proficiency  is  attained  should  be 
dwelt  upon.  I  am  pleased  to  attempt  the  task  of  offering 
information  on  this  subject.  At  the  same  time  I  am  not 
convinced  of  the  especial  helpfulness  of  such  an  article  to 
a  woman  or  girl  who  might  wish  to  take  up  this  calling. 

There  are  many  things  to  be  considered  if  one  wishes 
to  become  a  successful  instructor  in  a  valuable  accom- 
plishment which  is  also  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  master. 
I  am  of  the  opinion  that,  like  teachers,  riders  are  born, 
not  made,  and  that  the  faculty  for  understanding  a  horse 
must  be  to  a  certain  degree  inherited  by  any  girl  who 
becomes  a  thorough  horsewoman. 

Every  child,  whether  boy  or  girl,  should  be  taught  to 
ride  in  early  childhood,  for  not  only  does  the  exercise 
improve  the  bodily  health  and  excite  a  proper  activity  of 
mind,  with  an  increase  of  will  power,  but  it  gives  an  excel- 
lent training  as  a  preparation  for  meeting  emergencies. 
Formerly  every  one  rode  ;  for,  when  the  only  means  of 
communication  between  towns  was  by  wheel  conveyances 
or  horseback  riding,  timidity  was  rarely  found  to  prevent 
a  girl  or  woman  from  "  mounting  her  pillion "  behind 
father  or  husband  and  starting  on  a  journey  of  hours  or 
even  days.  In  some  parts  of  the  world  even  the  beggars 
still  ride  their  own  horses. 


350  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

Now  riding  schools  are  so  organized  that  the  expense 
of  taking  lessons  is  not  exceedingly  great,  and  a  much 
larger  number  may  profit  by  the  opportunity  to  learn. 

A  mistake  that  many  teachers  make  is  to  assure  the 
pupil  that  she  may  attain  proficiency  in  a  few  lessons. 
Horsemanship  cannot  be  so  readily  acquired.  .  Moreover, 
to  be  a  good  rider  is  one  thing  and  to  be  a  good  teacher 
is  altogether  different.  Perfect  health  is  one  of  the  points 
to  consider,  good  temper,  patience,  a  love  for  animals  and 
a  great  deal  of  courage  are  qualities  absolutely  necessary. 
In  any  case,  there  are  many  difficulties  to  contend  with. 
As  a  teacher,  one  is  obliged  to  come  in  contact  with  much 
that  is  rough  and  repulsive  to  a  refined  woman.  One  has 
to  be  careful  not  to  become,  under  such  associations, 
rough  and  "  horsey,"  and  thereby  unfit  to  teach  women 
and  children. 

Much  tact  is  needed  to  get  on  with  the  many  tempera- 
ments, and  there  must  be  no  "bluff"  about  what  you 
know  in  regard  to  a  horse  and  his  management.  You 
must  also  be  confident  concerning  your  knowledge,  and 
be  able  to  inspire  others  with  confidence  in  you. 

In  regard  to  a  method,  I  should  say  the  English  way 
of  riding  is  the  best,  as  it  makes  one  an  all-around  horse- 
woman, and  gives  the  rider  a  hunting  seat,  besides  fitting 
her  to  master  all  kinds  of  horses,  which,  as  a  teacher,  she 
is  obliged  to  ride. 

I  don't  think  any  woman  could  become  a  teacher 
through  self-training  ;  yet  it  is  possible  that  if  a  girl  had 
begun  to  ride  as  early  as  ten  years  of  age,  under  compe- 
tent instruction,  and  if,  while  her  general  education  was 
progressing,  she  gave  as  much  time  and  attention  to  this 
as  to  any  other  accomplishment — music,  language,  fence- 
ing  or  gymnastics — she  would  find  herself  in  ten  years 
more  a  good  rider.  Even  then  she  might  not  be  able  to 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      351 

impart  her  knowledge  to  others,  and  certainly  could  not 
do  so  without  training  for  it,  unless  she  had  a  general 
adaptability  for  teaching. 

The  expense  of  acquiring  this  knowledge  is  no  greater 
than  is  incurred  in  gaining  any  other  accomplishment. 

There  have  been  in  the  past  and  there  are  at  present  a 
few  women  teachers  of  horsemanship.  I  believe  the  first 
instructor  in  the  art  of  riding  was  Mrs.  Dickel,  whose  sons 
are  conductors  of  riding  schools.  There  are  now  only 
four  or  five  who  follow  this  calling. 

To  make  it  a  financial  success  such  long  hours  of  hard 
work  are  required  that  few  women  who  undertake  it  are 
able  to  make  more  than  a  living.  Eight  hours  in  the  sad- 
dle every  working  day  of  the  year  takes  the  romance  out 
of  riding  even  a  good  horse.  To  do  the  work  at  all  the 
teacher  has  to  have  absolutely  sound  health,  and  nerves 
are  out  of  the  question.  All  social  life  must  be  given  up 
for  this  exciting  labour. 

But  this,  too,  has  its  compensations,  for  you  become  so 
engrossed  in  the  progress  of  your  pupils  and  in  preventing 
accidents  while  they  are  in  the  rudimentary  stage  of  learn- 
ing that  you  find  it  a  good  deal  like  bringing  up  a  large 
family.  Then  again,  much  of  the  work  is  done  in  the 
open  air,  with  the  noblest  of  dumb  brutes  for  compan- 
ions ;  there  is  a  great  deal  of  vitality  gained  from  their 
strength,  and  herein  bicycles  can  never  take  the  place  of 
horses,  even  for  the  exercise  that  is  in  some  respects  sim- 
ilar to  riding. 

To  sum  up  the  situation  :  With  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
horsemanship,  perfect  health,  patience  and  courage,  a 
woman  can  earn  a  living  in  teaching  riding  by  hard  work. 
The  want  of  experience  would  be  a  drawback  to  a  young 
girl's  undertaking  to  give  instruction,  and  she  assumes  a 
great  responsibility. 


352  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

In  teaching  children  infinite  pains  must  be  taken,  and 
the  teacher  should  be  most  conscientious. 

Saddles,  habits  and  all  riding  paraphernalia  are  expen- 
sive, and  should  always  be  of  the  best  quality  that  can  be 
found. 

I  should  like  to  see  a  woman  teacher  in  every  school, 
for  I  believe  that  women  and  children  would  and  do 
learn  of  such  a  teacher  with  greater  comfort  to  themselves 
than  when  the  instructor  is  a  man.  The  different  natures 
met  with  require  different  treatment,  and  this  women  are 
patient  in  giving.  This  does  not  mean  that  there  should 
be  any  relaxing  of  the  rules  which  a  horsewoman  must  go 
by.  First,  attention  must  be  given  to  understanding  the 
horse's  motion  and  action,  and  then  the  position  in  the 
saddle  must  be  considered.  The  rider  must  sit  squarely, 
so  that  her  hips  are  at  right  angles  with  the  horse's  spine, 
the  right  knee  resting  against  the  pommel  and  the  leg 
hanging  over,  the  toe  pointed  down.  The  left  thigh  is 
held  close  to  the  saddle  flap,  the  left  foot  in  the  stirrup  so 
that  the  ball  presses  it  firmly,  and  the  heel  droops  a  trifle. 
Hands  should  be  held  close  together,  though  their  posi- 
tion may  be  altered  by  circumstances. 

Altogether,  as  an  exercise,  accomplishment  and  enjoy- 
ment, nothing  can  take  the  place  of  horseback  riding,  as 
all  concur  in  acknowledging  who  have  ever  become  at  all 
expert  in  it. 

EMILY  S.  BEACH. 


PROFESSIONAL    SHOPPERS. 

IN  several  large  cities  of  the  United  States  a  number  of 
keen  and  alert  women  find  profitable  occupation  in 
buying  for  their  friends  out  of  town  a  list  of  the  articles 


TRADE  AND  BUSINESS  OCCUPATIONS.      353 

at  the  retail  stores  which  the  principal  would  otherwise 
have  had  to  make  a  trip  to  the  city  to  obtain. 

The  shopper  performs  all  the  labour  of  going  from  store 
to  store  until  the  desired  goods  are  found.  She  causes 
the  goods  to  be  shipped  to  the  actual  purchaser,  and 
receives  a  commission  of  5  or  6  per  cent,  from  the  stores 
and  5  per  cent,  more  from  the  principal. 

The  simple  labour  of  shopping  is  distasteful  to  many 
women,  and  they  are  glad  to  leave  the  task  to  some  one 
else,  and  to  pay  a  commission  for  the  accommodation. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  competition  between  the  leading 
retail  stores  is  so  strong  that  they  are  glad  to  pay  some- 
thing to  any  energetic  woman  who  can  turn  business  in 
their  direction.  Both  parties  are  benefited,  and  the  inter- 
mediary (the  shopper)  derives  her  own  advantage  from 
the  transaction. 

An  occupation  related  to  shopping  is  that  of  guide. 
The  services  of  a  professional  guide  are  more  generally 
employed  abroad  than  in  America.  Middle-aged  women 
with  a  knowledge  of  languages,  a  kindly  appearance,  some 
little  worldly  wisdom  and  thorough  familiarity  with  the 
city  (Berlin,  Paris  or  whatever  the  capital  may  be)  are  an 
important  aid  to  the  stranger  and  the  occasional  traveller. 

The  income  from  shopping  depends  entirely  on  the  vol- 
ume of  the  business  transacted.  The  commission  is  fixed 
by  custom.  In  some  cases,  where  the  purchases  are  large, 
the  principal  may  pay  a  smaller  commission  than  5  per 
cent. 

See  Also  "  Society  Women  in  Business." 


WORKERS  IN  GLASS. 

IN  the  glassware  industry  in  America  there  is  not  much 
opportunity  for  educated  women.     The  occupations   sup- 


354  WHAT  WOMEN  CAN  EARN. 

plied  to  such  women  as  choose  to  work  in  the  glass  facto- 
ries are  those  of  buffers,  packers,  blowers,  dusters,  solder- 
ers,  sorters,  cleaners,  grinders,  etc.,  mainly. 

The  wages  paid  in  these  branches  of  the  work  which 
are  largely  suitable  for  girls  vary  between  $3  to  $6  a  week. 
Forewomen  are  necessary,  when  many  girls  are  employed, 
and  $9  to  $12  is  the  usual  weekly  salary.  Decorators 
ordinarily  get  from  $4  to  $7  a  week,  but  this  refers  to 
ordinary  work.  For  really  artistic  work,  in  the  decoration 
of  fine  wear,  the  pay  is  considerably  higher,  but  there  is 
not  much  of  this  work  for  women  in  America  at  present. 
Women  make  excellent  operatives  in  the  shops  where 
frail  glassware  must  be  handled  and  packed. 

Abroad,  in  some  of  the  glass  factories,  women  are  often 
employed  in  large  numbers,  especially  in  Venice  and 
Murano,  cities  which  have  been  the  homes  of  the  glass- 
blower  for  ages.  One  of  the  prettiest  sights  in  Venice 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  shops  where  beads,  bugles,  imitation 
pearls  and  other  glass  ornaments  are  made,  and  in  which 
scores  of  girls  are  employed. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN     INITIAL    FINE    OF    25    CENTS 

WILL.  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
T^S   BOOK  ON   THE  DATE  DUE.     THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY     AND    TO     $I.OO     ON     THE    SEVENTH 
OVERDUE. 


AUG    6  1982 

RETO     JUL  7 


SENT  ON  ILL 

JUN  ?  n  1991 

U.  C.  BERKELEY 


LD21- 


XB  65101 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


